Alcohol, Depression and Gender

Two studies by CAMH’s Dr. Kathryn Graham provide new information on alcohol consumption, depression, and gender.

Published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, January 2007 Dr. Graham’s study Does the Association Between Alcohol Consumption and Depression Depend on How They Are Measured? looked at the associations between depression and alcohol use.  Uniquely, this study examined this relationship separately for women and men.  Dr. Graham’s work found that how researchers measure alcohol consumption and depression, as well as examining gender, are key issues when interpreting findings on the relationship between alcohol and depression. These findings provide critical clarification of the relationship between alcohol consumption and depression.

Results indicate that:

• Depression is most strongly related to a pattern of binge drinking.
• Those who usually drink less than two drinks per occasion and never drink as much as five drinks are less depressed – for both measures of depression – than former drinkers. This relationship with drinking pattern is greater for women than for men.
• The overall relationship between depression and alcohol consumption is stronger for women than for men, but only when depression is measured as meeting a clinical diagnosis of major depression.
• There is no gender difference when depression is measured as recent depressed feelings, which is commonly done in research on this topic.

This information will be essential for future research intended on identifying causal directions and mechanisms.  Also, this data suggests that clinicians treating women for depression need to be concerned about women's use of alcohol.

Other recent work by Dr. Graham shed new light on antidepressants use and the impact on the link between depression and alcohol use.  Published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ,)February 27, 2007, this work explored the relationship between use of antidepressants and level of alcohol consumption, examining whether using antidepressants affected the link between depression and level of alcohol consumption.

The research concluded that women suffering from depression consumed more alcohol than women who did not experience depression, regardless of antidepressant use. This finding is significantly different that rates found in male counterparts. While men suffering from depression generally consume more alcohol than non-depressed men, those who use antidepressants consume alcohol at about the same level as non-depressed men.

The study also revealed:

• Overall, participants in the survey experiencing depression drank more alcohol than did non-depressed respondents.
• Men taking antidepressants consumed significantly less alcohol than depressed men who did not use antidepressants.
• Non-depressed men consumed 436 drinks per year, compared to 579 drinks for depressed men not using antidepressants, and 414 drinks for depressed men who used antidepressants
• For women, the alcohol use remained higher whether those experiencing depression took antidepressants or not. The numbers are telling: 179 drinks per year for non-depressed women, 235 drinks for depressed women not using antidepressants, and 264 drinks for depressed women who used antidepressants

This type of research, which specifically looks at gender differences, helps find important clues to tailor treatments.  Further research is needed to assess whether these finding are due to drug effects or some other factor.

More information on this study is available at Alcohol consumption and the use of antidepressants.

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