Not self-medication

Another study finds that depression tends to follow alcohol problems rather than cause alcohol problems. My guess is that the popularity of self-medication theories won't suffer at all. Why is that?

Conclusions - The findings suggest that the associations between AAD and MD were best explained by a causal model in which problems with alcohol led to increased risk of MD as opposed to a self-medication model in which MD led to increased risk of AAD.

This is a longitudinal study. I look forward to seeing more about the responses to treatment for alcoholism and depression.

Technorati Tags: depression, alcoholism, research