Does drinking alcohol really remove the blues? That’s not what you think

A new study by the University of Chicago Medicine reveals that people with alcohol consumption disorders (AUD) and depression have high levels of stimulation and pleasure when they are poisoned, similar to drinkers who do not have no depression.

The results of the long-standing belief that people feel pleasure during alcohol consumption decreases with dependence and that intoxication consumption is mainly to reduce negative feelings as a form of self-medication.

“We have this folklore that people drink excessively when they feel depressed and that it is really a question of self-mediatizing,” said Andrea King, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at Uchicago and principal author of the study. “In this study on natural consumption relationships of consumption and smartphones on the effects of alcohol in real time, participants with AUD and a depressive disorder declared that they are bitter, supported by positive alcohol effects And enriching, just like their non -depressed counterparts.

Published in the American Journal of PsychiatryResearch questions conventional concepts on the effects of alcohol on depressed people who drink excessively and could improve processing approaches by concentrating more drugs and behavioral approaches on the awards of the pleasure of alcohol and Less on stress -sensitive systems.

“Currently, the objective of treatment is often on the resolution of stress and symptoms of depression, but this is only addressed to one side of the medal if we do not also lower increased stimulation, the Likes and willing more alcohol that occurs both depressed and not -the repressed people with Aud, “said King, who has been conducting human research for decades to test the responses to alcohol that leads to dependence.

The effects of alcohol on the brain are complex, and a better understanding of the factors that affect an individual’s vulnerability to AUD and depression are essential to identify and initiate early and effective treatment. However, few studies have examined how Add people with alcohol, either in controlled laboratory or in the natural environment; The inclusion of people with AUD and another Comorbid diagnosis adds to complexity.

Research has followed 232 individuals across the United States between 21 and 35 years of age, corresponding to the period when most alcohol consumers occur during a person’s life. Half of the study group met the AUD criteria in the past year and has been uniformly divided in terms of those who had undergone a major depressive disorder in the past year. People who had suicidal ideas were excluded for safety reasons, as are people who had serious symptoms of alcohol withdrawal.

Thanks to their smartphones, the participants answered questions every half hour for three hours for a typical alcohol episode and an alcohol-free episode. The researchers found that alcohol consumption reduced negative feelings, although the reduction is small and not specific to their depression or their AUD status. The positive effects of alcohol were much higher in people with AUD than those without AUD, and unlike tradition, similar in people with aud and depression and those without depression.

“For almost a decade, our group has improved methods to use mobile technologies to measure clinically significant results in real time in people with Aud and those at risk of alcohol -related problems,” said the Co-author of the Daniel Fridberg study, PH.D., associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience in Uchicago. “These approaches allow us to fill the gap between the laboratory and real life and have led to new ideas that could one day lead to better treatments.”

The results of the study question the predominant theory that alcohol dependence follows from the brain’s attempt to maintain stability despite repeated excessive consumption. This theory describes a “dark side of dependence” where high consumption repeated over time leads to changes in the brain systems involved in stress and reward. Following these changes, the hypothesis is issued that individuals pass from alcohol consumption to drink to avoid withdrawal and stress.

King says that this theory does not take into account the high levels of stimulation and pleasure which it compares to an accelerator pedal supplying more dependence.

“As treatment providers, we were taught to people with drinking audience to self-mediatize and feel better,” said King. “But what exactly do they feel of our study, this seems to be high levels of stimulation and pleasant effects, with a modest decrease in negative states.”

King’s next study is examining if adults aged 40 to 65 who have had Aud for decades also have similar feelings of pleasure in consumption compared to older drinkers without AUD. The dominant theory would suggest that these individuals would show positively blunted positive responses and high levels of alcohol tolerance. King will examine if they show long -term sensitivity to the pleasant effects of alcohol, as in this study of depressed drinkers.