Alcoholism and depression.

There are a variety of ways in which depression and alcoholism are related. These include the possibility of a person suffering from two relatively frequent diseases by chance alone. Secondly, on withdrawal from alcoholism depressive symptoms occur; these are rather short lived. Third, a secondary depression is seen in a large number of chronic alcoholics. Secondary depression is an ordinary depressive illness which manifests itself in the course of another primary illness, in this case alcoholism. There is no evidence that secondary mania exists to alcoholism. Finally, another type of relationship is familial. In a large number of alcoholics, such people come from families where depression also exists. This depression is called a depression spectrum disease. Depression spectrum disease is a depressive illness which occurs in an individual who comes from a family where alcoholism exists. Such a family may also contain other depressives but no manics. Depression spectrum disease patients are likely to have a relatively early onset, and are likely to show many problems in living and unstable personality characteristics. They are likely to be normal suppressors on the dexamethasone suppression test.