Alcohol and Mood: An Updated Review

Abstract

Research since 1968 on the relationship between alcohol and mood was reviewed and updated. There are measurement and methodological barriers to delineating this relationship. The literature is replete with mixed findings that the motivation for drinking alcohol is psychological benefit, tension reduction or affective improvement. Conflicting and equivocal data characterized self-reports of depression and other affects in alcoholics. Alcoholics experience increasing dysphoria as a consequence of alcohol consumption, while nonalcoholics anticipate and generally attain elevated moods as a result of drinking.