Alcohol, Marijuana and Depression

While the evidence on alcohol's relationship to mood is somewhat complicated, certain things are clear. Although it is not well understood whether moderate drinkers or abstainers are less likely to experience depression, heavy drinking is known to have a highly negative effect on mood.

Using alcohol to try escape from painful feelings has a net negative effect on mood, even for moderate drinkers. Also, moderate drinkers who are experiencing depression are more responsive to treatments when they abstain.

If you need support to stop drinking, try going to 6 different AA meetings in your area.

The research paints a similar, although not as dark, picture for marijuana use. While recreational use has not been shown to increase depression, people who use marijuana to cope with problems have higher rates of depression and there is some evidence that they develop Post Traumatic symptoms more easily and have more suicidal thoughts.

Research

Alcohol

Brown SA, Schuckit MA. Changes in depression among abstinent alcoholics. J
Stud Alcohol 1988; 49: 412-417.

Heavy drinkers experienced a dramatic decrease in depressive symptoms upon abstaining from alcohol.

Worthington J, Fava M, Agustin C, Alpert J, Nierenberg AA, Pava JA, Rosenbaum JF. Consumption of alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine among depressed outpatients. Relationship with response to treatment. Psychosomatics. 1996 Nov-Dec;37(6):518-22.

Found that even moderate levels of alcohol consumptions interferred with depression treatment.

S . Gilman. A longitudinal study of the order of onset of alcohol dependence and major depression. Drug and Alcohol Dependence , Volume 63 , Issue 3 , Pages 277 - 286

This study followed more than 14,000 consumers of community mental health services and found that when someone begins to drink heavily, they are likely to meet criteria for Major Depression within the next year. The converse is also true.

Jürgen Rehm, Robin Room, Kathryn Graham, Maristela Monteiro, Gerhard Gmel & Christopher T. Sempos. The relationship of average volume of alcohol consumption and patterns of drinking to burden of disease: an overview. Addiction. Volume 98 Issue 9, Pages 1209 - 1228

Found that alcohol consumption correlated to several serious health problems from Major Depression to various forms of cancer.

David W. Oslin, M.D., Ira R. Katz, M.D., Ph.D., William S. Edell, Ph.D., and Thomas R. Ten Have, Ph.D. Effects of Alcohol Consumption on the Treatment of Depression Among Elderly Patients. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 8:215-220, August 2000

Found that decreasing alcohol use, even for moderate drinkers, lead to an improvement for elderly people with depression.

Davidson KM. Diagnosis of depression in alcohol dependence: changes in
prevalence with drinking status. Br J Psychiatry 1995; 166: 199-204.

82 alcohol-dependent in-patients were tested and during the episode of drinking which led to admission, a diagnosis of major depression was found in the majority of patients (67%). Once detoxification from alcohol took place, only the minority (13%) met criteria for major depression. This shows that alcohol use can cause depression that remits upon abstinence.

Marijuana

Vlahov, D. et al. Increased Use of Cigarettes, Alcohol, and Marijuana among Manhattan, New York, Residents after the September 11th Terrorist Attacks. American Journal of Epidemiology. 155(11):988-996, June 1, 2002.

Found that New Yorkers who increased their use of marijuana, tobacco or alcohol in after September 11 had increased chances of developing Post Traumatic Symptoms. Marijuana increased both PTS symptoms and depression more than the other substances.

GREEN B. RITTER C. Marijuana use and depression. Journal of health and social behavior. 2000, vol. 41, no1, pp. 40-49 (1 p.3/4)

In a large drug use survey of men born between 1944-1954, found that marijuana users who use the drug to cope with problems are more depressed than those who do not use to cope with problems.

Musty, R. Kaback, L. Relationships between motivation and depression in chronic marijuana users. Life Sciences. Volume 56, Issues 23-24, 5 May 1995, Pages 2151-2158.

Compared heavy and moderate marijuana users on several motivation and depression scales. Found that heavy users' lack of motivation is correlated with their level of depression.

Bovasso, G. Cannabis Abuse as a Risk Factor for Depressive Symptoms.
Am J Psychiatry 158:2033-2037, December 2001.

People with a diagnosis of cannabis abuse at baseline were four times more likely than those with no cannabis abuse diagnosis to have depressive symptoms at the follow-up assessment, after adjusting for age, gender, antisocial symptoms, and other baseline covariates. In particular, these participants were more likely to have experienced suicidal ideation and anhedonia during the follow-up period.

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