What do alcohol and antidepressants have in common?
(Mirror Daily, United States) A recent study from specialists suggests that alcohol and antidepressants have something in common, namely they both work against depression. However, combing them is not a solution. People can now feel less guilty about their evening glass of wine, as now it is scientifically proved that small doses of alcohol can calm you down.
Lab tests helped the researchers determine that alcohol and antidepressants have similar effects on the organism when it comes to treating clinical depression. The study shows that both substances trigger the same reactions which lead to healthy behavior in people.
Nevertheless, specialists do not suggest an alcohol-based treatment for people who suffer from depression. The risk of using excessive doses is high, even more with depressed people, who tend to resort to drinking quite often. Abusive use of medication can also turn to addiction, which is harmful to people. There are many cases of people who ended up in a coma because of the abusive use of these substances.
What the researchers did was only observe the chemical reactions of alcohol and antidepressants and state that there are some similarities. According to the authors of the study, alcohol can eliminate the depressed mood of people for as long as twenty-four hours. However, the experiments were carried out on animals.
The new study was conducted by professor Kimberly Raab-Graham. She and her team rely on both chemical and behavioral information when stating the effects of what can be called healthy alcohol. The benefits of drinking have also been observed by people who are not depressed but merely stressed, after a hard day.
One of the most popular antidepressants is Ketamine. It can relieve depression in a few hours, and its effects can last up to fourteen days. Ketamine is widely used because it is known to be as one of the most rapid antidepressants. Just like alcohol, the medicine also triggers certain brain activity which makes people feel better and experiment improvement with depression.
The new study on the chemical effects of alcohol against depression was published in Nature Communications. The new research accounts for the hypothesis that people have always tried to self-medicate with alcohol. Although studies show that a few drinks never harmed anyone, it requires a lot of control from depressive patients to know when to stop.
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Matthew Slotkin
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