Alcohol and depression appear to go hand in hand these days. It is usually very hard to differentiate an alcoholic person who is depressed from a depressed person who is alcoholic. However, recent findings have shown that people who are depressed are more likely to take up to drinking than alcoholic people are to be depressed. The reason behind this is that, alcohol offers temporary comfort and a  relaxed state of the mind to a person who is depressed. This helps depressed people cheer themselves up, be able to sleep and even briefly lift up their moods. It is for this reasons that depressed patients always find it easy to generate extended needs for large quantities of alcohol intake.

However, since depression can lead to suicidal thoughts, the lack of self control, impulsivity and compromised judgment initiated by the alcohol levels in the body can lead to the fulfillment of these thoughts by the depressed person. This possibility has greatly contributed to the rising number of both suicide attempts and 
complete suicide occurrences that have taken place in the society today. Other common problems of alcohol and depression are often complicated by social problems. These problems may include under performing at work, having frequent marital problems among other things. This may lead to cases of divorce or loss of jobs among the depressed people.

Apart from social problems, alcohol can cause a lot of physical harm to the patient. Such harm includes the complete destruction  of internal organs such as the liver. When alcohol completely affects the liver making it not to function properly, jaundice, a health problem resulting from hepatitis, allows the skin to have a yellow discoloration something that may lead to death if the patient is not quick enough to seek treatment for this terrible condition. Stomach ulcers, cases of anemia, impotence, loss of sensation in the arms or legs and profound memory disturbances are among other physical problems that may be realized when one tries to mix alcohol and depression.

Legal problems are also most likely to catch up with you once you start taking alcohol while under depression. The reason for saying this is that, since alcohol makes one have an impulsive behavior, it is very easy for a depressed person to behave or drive recklessly something that may lead him to land on the wrong side of the law. With this happening, the depression condition may find itself worsening in the process since more trouble will have been added to you.

To deal with this problem, treatment with a selective SSRI (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor) antidepressant is often administered to the patient so as to improve both the alcohol and depression disorders. This antidepressant works by reducing the depression levels of the patient making him not to feel so bad that he turns to alcohol for comfort. Other medication such as Disulfiram and Acamprosate can also be useful for this problem. Disulfiram is used to help the patient to abstain from alcohol since it makes the person get an unpleasant reaction whenever he or she mixes the medicine with alcohol while Acamprosate often helps the patient reduce the urge for taking alcohol. Support and counseling both from family members and professional doctors can be helpful to the patient since it is usually the sense of lack of support that makes the patient resort to alcohol whenever he feels depressed.

Wangeci Kinyanjui is an expert on research and reporting on Health Matters for years.To get more information on alcohol and depression visit her site at <a href="http://www.goshriek.com/?p=245">ALCOHOL AND DEPRESSION</a>