News: Giving up alcohol can lead to depression - Telegraph

Abruptly giving up alcohol may be linked to depression, according to a study from the University of North Carolina.

Lucy Cockroft's piece in the Telegraph (10 July 2008) quotes Professor Clyde Hodge: "Our work establishes a link between abstinence from alcohol drinking and depression. In mice that voluntarily drank alcohol for 28 days, depression-like behaviour was evident 14 days after termination of alcohol drinking.

"This suggests that people who stop drinking may experience negative mood states days or weeks after the alcohol has cleared their systems. This research provides the first evidence that long-term abstinence from moderate alcohol drinking leads to a negative mood state, depression."

The academic study - Abstinence following Alcohol Drinking Produces Depression-Like Behavior and Reduced Hippocampal Neurogenesis in Mice - can be found on nature.com.

An easier read can be found on the NHS Choices site.