Latent alcohol use patterns and their link to depressive symptomatology in medical care patients

Purpose Alcohol use disorders have been consistently associated with co-occurrent depressive disorders. However, a lack of research exists on co-occurrent depressive symptoms over the full range of alcohol use.

Methods Medical care patients aged 18-64 years were proactively approached for a health screening (participation rate = 87%, n = 13,763). Latent class analysis was applied to 5,301 male and 5,552 female alcohol users to identify patterns of alcohol use based on frequency of alcohol use, typical quantity and frequency of binging (AUDIT). Multinomial logistic regression analyses were used to examine associations of patterns with depressive symptom severity and individual depressive symptoms (PHQ-8) while controlling for socio-demographics and health behaviors.

Results We identified six patterns of alcohol use with the majority of patients engaging in “light use plus no or occasional binging”. Severity of depressive symptoms was positively associated with “frequent use plus frequent binging” when compared with “light use plus no or occasional binging” (Relative Risk Ratio, RRR_male=1.06; RRR_female=1.09). It was negatively associated with “regular use plus occasional binging” for males (RRR_male=0.98) and positively with “occasional use plus occasional binging“ for females (RRR_female=1.03). Individual depressive symptoms were differentially associated with alcohol use patterns, with depressed mood, poor appetite or overeating, guilt, and psychomotoric changes being especially pronounced in the “frequent use plus frequent binging” class.

Conclusions Our results offer new insight into potential qualitative differences of alcohol use patterns and deepens the understanding of the alcohol-depression co-occurrence. Future studies need to examine underlying pathways that take into account the moderating role of gender.

Publication History

Article published online:
02 September 2021