Alcohol causes the same neural and molecular changes as drugs that have been shown to be rapidly effective antidepressants, according to researchers. Because of the high comorbidity of major depressive disorder and alcoholism, there is the widely accepted self-medication hypothesis, which suggests that depressed people may turn to drinking to treat their depression, according to principal investigator Kimberly Raab-Graham, associate professor of physiology and pharmacology at Wake Forest School of Medicine, which is part of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
“We now have biochemical and behavioural data to support that hypothesis,” he said, adding that this does not imply alcohol is an effective treatment for depression. Raab-Graham and her colleagues discovered that a single dose of intoxicating alcohol, when combined with an autism-related protein, transformed the neurotransmitter GABA from an inhibitor to a stimulator of neural activity in an animal model. Furthermore, the team discovered that these biochemical changes resulted in non-depressive behaviour that lasted at least 24 hours. GABA is the brain’s most powerful depressive neurotransmitter. It is essential for relaxation because it regulates many of the depressive and sedative actions in brain tissue.
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