Depression and Alcohol Problems in Women.

This cross-sectional interview study explores the complex interface of depression and alcoholism by an examination of how depression is associated with drinking problems in a sample of women in treatment for alcoholism (N = 301) and control women (N = 137). The association between manifest depression at the time of an alcoholic woman's admission to treatment, early life experiences and perceptions, and the consequences of alcoholism are investigated. Two indices of depression, one that reflects self-esteem and the other current mood, were constructed by submitting questionnaire items measuring depression to factor analysis. The first research questions examined the relationship between depression and the course and consequences of female alcoholism by bivariate and correlational analyses. Clinic women were found to be more depressed than control women, irrespective of how depression was measured. Further, both measures of depression were associated with earlier age of onset and earlier loss of control. Binge drinking was associated with depressed mood, but not self-esteem, while daily and weekend drinking were associated with self-esteem, but not mood. Both indices of depression were associated with consequences perceived by the respondent to be the result of her alcoholic drinking, except for deficits in maternal role performance. Next, the salience of selected early psychosocial antecedents in predicting depression among the alcoholic women and the relationship between depression and psychosocial antecedents in predicting alcoholism were examined in a regression framework. Results indicate that early life history does not predict who will be alcoholic and who will not be among the more depressed women, but that there are subtle influences in the family environment that predict which alcoholic women will be more or less depressed.PhDSocial workUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/161043/1/8612643.pd