A qualitative study of the perceived effects of alcohol on depressive symptoms among undergraduates who drink to cope with depression

Abstract

Introduction and Aims. Heavy drinking is prevalent among undergraduate students and is linked with drinking to cope with depression motives for drinking. Drinking to cope with depression remains poorly understood given that alcohol has been shown to have adverse effects on mood when consumed at high doses. Using semi-structured qualitative interviews, the present study examined the perceived effects of alcohol on depressive symptoms as reported by undergraduate students who endorse high levels of drinking to cope with depression. Design and Methods. Sixteen undergraduate coping-with-depression-motivated (CWDM) drinkers (nine women, seven men), identified using the Modified Drinking Motives Questionnaire-Revised [1], reported on their experiences of drinking to cope with depression. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify themes and subthemes in the data. Results. Undergraduate students reported several effects of alcohol on affective, cognitive and behavioural depressive symptoms. While most of the perceived alcohol effects they described involved relief from depressive symptoms, some perceived effects involved worsening depressive symptoms. Discussion and Conclusions. The study generated several hypotheses to explain drinking to cope with depression, some of which might be testable in future experimental work. Overall, findings suggest the mood-altering effects of alcohol do not fully explain why depression and alcohol use are frequently co-morbid. Indeed, effects of alcohol on cognitive and behavioural depressive symptoms might be particularly reinforcing for CWDM drinkers. Interventions that target co-morbid depression and alcohol use might be improved by teaching CWDM drinkers skills to reduce depressive cognitions and to improve interpersonal interactions outside of drinking contexts. [Couture M-E , Pearson R, Halloran J, Stewart SH. A qualitative study of the perceived effects of alcohol on depressive symptoms among undergraduates who drink to cope with depression. Drug Alcohol Rev 2020;39: [180][181][182][183][184][185][186][187][188]

Relationship among Aggression, Non-Suicidal Self-Injury, and Depression in Youths

“…Another 287 youths had been reported with depression tendency, showing a detection rate of 37.27%. Such detection rates were slightly higher than those in a previous study ( 24 ). This may be because the COVID-19 pandemic has been developing since January 2020, which has caused great influences on family, school and the society.…”

Relationship between Depressive Symptoms, Personality, and Binge Drinking among University Students in Spain

“…One of the motivations for university students to engage in BD is that it reduces depressive symptoms [ 34 ], therefore BD, could be seen as a method to reduce these problems, which is why higher rates of BD are found among students with greater symptoms. However, it is also possible that some of these students consume alcohol as a consequence of depressive conditions and not the other way around [ 35 , 36 ]. Furthermore, stress seems to be related to depressive symptomatology in university students [ 37 ].…”

A Scoping Review and Content Analysis of Common Depressive Symptoms of Young People

“…In the additional search conducted in March 2021, 460 articles published between 2018 and March 2021 were identified; a total of eight peer-reviewed articles were selected to verify the findings above (Achterbergh et al, 2020;Burke et al, 2018;Couture et al, 2020;Mazzuca et al, 2019;Morey-Nase et al, 2019;Reed-Berendt et al, 2019;Watson et al, 2020;Willis et al, 2018;Supplemental Figure S2). Seven articles used qualitative approaches and one applied qualitative meta-synthesis to explore the loneliness experience of young people with depression from 14 studies.…”