Why You Self-Medicate with Alcohol, Explained by Science

You know those nights when you've had a magical mix of mezcal, gin and tonics, Singapore Slings, and beer? When the fadesies kick in, and all of your worries evaporate as quickly as the smell of Jager on your breath?

For many, this is the most surefire way of hitting the old off-switch and getting brief reprieve from existential or emotional angst. Well, turns out that your mezcal-riddled brain isn't playing tricks on you. At a molecular level, it would appear that boozing produces the very same effect on your brain as powerful antidepressants.

That's the result of a recent study seeking to better understand the link between drinking and depression. By administering an "intoxicating" level of alcohol to genetically altered mice (who says mice don't deal with the occasional bout of melancholy?), scientists noted biochemical changes that resulted in "non-depressive behaviour" that lasted at least 24 hours.

This might sound like a bunch of jargon and drunk mice, but the implications for humans are really promising, according to authors.

"Because of the high comorbidity between major depressive disorder and alcoholism, there is the widely recognised self-medication hypothesis, suggesting that depressed individuals may turn to drinking as a means to treat their depression," Kimberly Raab-Graham, the study's principal investigator said in a statement. "We now have biochemical and behavioural data to support that hypothesis."

It may employ the same mechanism as antidepressants, but alcohol, as we all know, can also make emotional states much worse. In other words, you won't be prescribed any Jack Daniels the next time you go through a rough patch—even if these results are replicated in humans,

"There's definitely a danger in self-medicating with alcohol," Raab-Graham added. "There's a very fine line between it being helpful and harmful, and at some point during repeated use self-medication turns into addiction."

So, what's the point in this research then? Well, at the very least, it's humbling to know that genetically modified mice employ the same coping mechanisms as humans.

"Additional research is needed in this area, but our findings do provide a biological basis for the natural human instinct to self-medicate," Raab-Graham concluded.

Cheers!