Avoid Cigarettes and Alcohol to Avoid Depression [Guest Post]
[From time to time, Addiction Inbox posts contributions from other bloggers. Views expressed belong to the guest poster and do not necessarily represent my own]
Christine Howell is a writer who regularly writes about online health care degrees and college related topics for Online College Guru, an online college directory and comparison website.
While there are definite correlations between depression and the use of alcohol and cigarettes, scientific opinions vary on the nature of those correlations and to what extent alcohol and nicotine create depressive symptomology. Alcohol has long been known to have demonstrated negative effects on mood and health; tobacco use has been linked to lung cancer and emphysema, among other medical conditions. Recent studies, however, indicate a more direct role in depression for both nicotine and alcohol use.
In 2007, the Columbia University National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse released its findings on the link between depression and smoking in teenagers. The study showed clear evidence that teens who smoke are more than twice as likely to experience the symptoms of depression in the course of a given year than non-smoking teenagers. This reinforces the results of a previous study published in the journal Pediatrics in October 2000, which showed a direct causal link between cigarette smoking and depression in adolescents. Previous studies had noted the link, but were unable to demonstrate causality; the 2000 study showed that teens who showed no signs of depression were four times more likely to become depressed during the course of a year’s time if they began to smoke, as opposed to those who did not smoke cigarettes at all.
The effects of alcohol are significantly worse since it is itself a depressant. Alcohol works on the central nervous system by lowering the levels of serotonin and norepinephrine; by way of contrast, antidepressants typically work by increasing those same levels. For patients already suffering from depression, alcohol produces the precise symptoms they are already experiencing; alcohol use can worsen the severity of depression and increase its duration by rendering the pharmaceutical treatments ineffective. The negative effects of alcohol use on depression increase as frequency and amount consumed increase; this positive correlation is linked to the cumulative effect of alcohol’s reduction in serotonin and norepinephrine levels.
A study conducted by Johns Hopkins University and published in the American Journal of Epidemiology in 1997 showed a gender-based correlation between depression and alcohol usage. According to the study, for men, alcohol was a causal factor in their subsequent depression; women tended to use alcohol as a result of their depression, possibly in an attempt to self-medicate depressive symptoms.
For those recovering from alcohol abuse, depression can be an unwelcome result of alcohol withdrawal. A University of North Carolina School of Medicine study found that when mice were habituated to alcohol, withdrawal caused depressive symptoms. The study also demonstrated a link between alcohol use and a failure to produce new neurons in certain areas of the brain necessary for proper cognitive function. Many patients struggling with the recovery process turn to coffee and cigarettes to assist them in combating alcohol abuse; ironically, cigarettes have been shown to be a factor in greater risks of relapse, and are not recommended for recovering alcoholics for this reason. Coffee does not have a similar correlating effect.
Certain conclusions can be derived from the existing evidence. Especially for adolescents and those with a predisposition to depression, alcohol and cigarettes should be avoided as they worsen the effects of depression and can trigger it even in those not already demonstrating depressive symptoms. Those in recovery from alcohol abuse should be considered at high risk for depression, and should avoid cigarette use in order to avoid relapse during this critical time. Additionally, men should be especially careful in their use of alcohol, as it has been shown that men are more likely than women to suffer from depression as a direct result of their alcohol usage. For most people, avoiding the use of these mood-altering substances altogether is the best precaution against developing alcohol and nicotine related depression.
Photo Credit: www.onlyhealthtopics.info
8 comments:
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Thanks for the post.
Besides alcohol being a depressant do you think that when teens use alcohol and tobacco they are changing the chemical make up of their brains?
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Good post. Do you think, on the other hand, there might be a risk of deepening depression on the part of somebody who doesn't use alcohol or tobacco problematically, but can't give them up completely?
Based solely on the description in the post, the article in Pediatrics does not necessarily imply that smoking causes depression. It is possible that adolescents desired to rebel or act out by starting to smoke because they were feeling depressed. All the study shows is that depression and smoking tend to co-occur during the same year. Smoking appears to be a good indicator of increased risk of depression, but it is misleading to write that the authors uncovered a causal relationship.
The Pediatrics study A) showed correlation NOT causation and B) was focused on obesity.
The Columbia press release also spoke only of correlations.
There is a strong argument that people who are depressed are innately more likely to smoke cigarettes or self medicate with cigarettes. Either one or a combination of both, or even more likely a combination of all three possibilities likely contribute to this correlation.
Please stop practicing bad science/propaganda, or at least provide citations so people don't have to dig to see the real science.
The pediatrics study was "A Prospective Study of the Role of Depression in the Development and Persistence of Adolescent Obesity"
The Columbia press release was titled "Tobacco: The Smoking Gun"
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