Implications of depression on outcome from alcohol dependence: a 3-year prospective follow-up.
The prognostic implications of comorbid depression for outcome from alcohol dependence are unclear. It has been suggested that drinking may represent self-medication of depressive disorders and, alternatively, that the pharmacological properties of alcohol induce episodes of depression. In the present study, these questions were investigated by following 84 alcohol-dependent individuals seeking treatment (34% women) for 3 years in a naturalistic, prospective design. During the follow-up period, depressive and drinking outcomes were significantly related. However, there was no evidence that drinking reliably preceded depressive episodes or that depressive episodes precipitated heavy drinking. Despite their high co-occurrence, this study did not find evidence of a strong, direct causal relationship between these phenomena.
Department of Psychology, Foothills Medical Centre, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. dhodgins@acs.ucalgary.ca
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DC
Hodgins
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el-Guebaly
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Armstrong
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Dufour
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012008:Recurrence