Alcohol Consumption and Its Effect on Emotional Health: An Annotated Bibliography

This annotated bibliography explores the association between alcohol consumption and emotional health, particularly in young adults. The studies highlight the effects of alcohol on emotional inertia, self-medication of mood symptoms, and the development of depression-like symptoms. Further research is needed to obtain an accurate result.

Running head: MIDWIFERY NURSING
Midwifery nursing
Name of the student:
Name of university:
Author note:

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This paper will paper will illustrate an annotated bibliography by applying the reflection model
describe by Morrissey & Callaghan (2011).
Stage 1:
From the school of research groups (school of nursing-midwifery, 2018) I have chosen
the topic “alcohol and its effect on a person’s mood”. I have interested in this topic during my
placement in the mental health clinical department. During my placement, numerous encounters
with the mental health patients who had the history of consuming alcohol highlighted that people
who often drink to regulate emotions, especially people drink to maintain the optimistic mood
often ended up having negative emotions caused by depressions. A study by Cyders et al. (2016),
suggested that individuals who drink alcohol might experience some which are influenced by
their alcohol consumptions. During my placement, I have observed that binge-like pattern of
alcohol consumption often related to the development of depression-like symptoms, which
potentially affected their quality of life. I have observed that adolescents are at higher risk of
developing depression-like symptoms, which will further influence their quality of life.
Therefore, in order to resolve the issues associated with alcohol consumption, appropriate
research is required.
Stage 2:
Mental health of individuals is a crucial part of human being, which influences the
behaviour of human being and relationship with the surroundings (Simons et al. 2017). With the
growing prevalence of alcohol assumptions consumptions and its associated effect, especially in
adolescents, the concern arises to control the mental health of the individual. A study by Cyders

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et al. (2016), showing that in Ireland, where alcohol consumptions are high, Irish men aged
between 15 to 24 years have the tendency of committing suicide due to heavy alcohol
consumptions. Mason et al. (2014), stated that approximately 48% of the adult individuals and
over 60% of young adults between 14 to 22 years had reported the drinking behaviour outside
the normal range, the majority of them developed the chronic mental illnesses such as
depression, anxiety or other mental illness. Therefore, for young adults, there was a strong
association between excessive consumption of alcohol and suicidal behaviour observed. Hence,
the research should be conducted on this topic in order to resolve the issue.
Stage three:
In order to find the relevant research articles, initially, I have conducted the research
using PubMed using key terms such as “alcohol consumption”, “mental health” and “depression”
reveling 44 journals. From this, I have selected three-research papers that I have found relevant
to the topic of research ( Appendix 1). I also chose the articles that carried out on not only adults
but also adolescents and opted for a balance qualitative and quantitative research articles to
provide various dimensions of alcohol consumptions associations with emotions of individuals.
I have chosen these articles since research articles helped me to address the research
questions “what is the effect of the alcohol consumption on an individual’s mood’. Moreover, the
articles are peer reviewed and showed the different dynamics of the emotional mood changes
realted to the alcohol consumptions with concrete evidences.
Annotated bibliography:
Fairbairn, C.E., and Sayette, M.A., 2013. The effect of alcohol on emotional inertia: A test
of alcohol myopia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 122(3), p.770

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The primary aim of the study is to evaluate the effect of alcohol on the emotional inertia
with the assistance of the test of alcohol myopia. The study stated that in order to understand the
alcohol’s reinfotmance properties, researchers have focused on the alcohol’s effect on the
emotions of the individuals. Growing evidence suggested that the work has been evolved to
incorporate a variety of the cognitive constructions for explaining the association between
alcohol consumptions and emotional experience of the individuals. The authors showed that the
most prominent theory of this approach is an alcohol myopia theory that highlights the subjective
experience in order to explain the impact of alcohol on individuals. The theory stated that alcohol
restricts the ability of the brain to connect immediate experience to prior experience to the extent
where individuals’ thoughts and ideas are only driven by emotions. A test has been conducted by
application of the theory practically considering the micro level where the tracking response time
in milliseconds for demonstrating alcohol stress reliever properties that are associated with the
reduction of attention resources. The study conducted a randomized trial control where they
recruited the healthy male and female’s social drinkers between the ages of 21 to 28 years via the
newspapers advertisements. one group were assigned to receive alcohol and other groups were
assigned to receive placebo for comparing the effect. Those participants who successfully
completed the initial phone screening were invited for the alcohol and research smoking
laboratory. Majority of the participants who took part in the study are European American, only
11% are African American and only very few participants. The study was conducted by
measuring cognitive performance. Therefore, participants were assigned to same alcohol
conditions and they seated in the table for the conversation where cameras were installed for
recording the facial expression of the participants. The result of the observational study

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suggested that alcohol a conception associated with the elevation of the mood that allows an
individual to enjoy the present situation and loss the awareness of past experiences.
The strength of the study lies in the research method. According to Jamshed (2014), the most
common format of data collection in qualitative research is interviewing the individual. The
study also conducted laboratory research for obtaining appropriate data. The study further
highlighted the importance of the considering dynamic affective fluctuations using
autocorrelation measurements. The study has several limitations such as the participants who
were participated in the study are frequent consumers of alcohol and therefore the rate of change
of intoxication fluctuates which made it difficult to measures the association between alcohol
consumptions and mood. Moreover, the researchers should examine the impact of alcohol on
autocorrelation in social interactions associated with negative emotions.
Crum, R.M., Mojtabai, R., Lazareck, S., Bolton, J.M., Robinson, J., Sareen, J., Green,
K.M., Stuart, E.A., La Flair, L., Alvanzo, A.A. and Storr, C.L., 2013. A prospective
assessment of reports of drinking to self-medicate mood symptoms with the incidence and
persistence of alcohol dependence. JAMA Psychiatry, 70(7), pp.718-726.
The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effect of alcohol consumption on self-
mediated mood symptoms. The study highlighted that mood disorders and its alcohol
dependency is a frequent phenomenon. A huge number of empirical evidence has documented
the co-morbidity occurrence of alcohol dependency and depression. it is often observed that
patients with alcohol dependency and depressions are more prone to death compared to the
individual with either of it. The researchers conducted a prospective study in a population-based
sample of alcohol mood symptoms self-medication with alcohol dependency. The researchers
conducted the most common qualitative study that is in dept face-to-face interview based on the

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National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. The researchers conducted
a survey involving 43093 adults in between 2001 to 2002 and 2004 to 2005, 34653 adults were
recruited for the reinterviewed. In the study, researchers measure the association between self-
medication of mood symptoms with the alcohol consumptions. 12 months of dependence of
DSM-IV alcohol was measured using the logistic regression along with propensity scored
method. Researchers showed that the drinking to self-medicate mood symptoms are correlated
with the development of alcohol dependency, therefore, once the alcohol dependency developed;
it increased the probability of developing a persistent dependency on alcohol. The study showed
that cases of alcohol dependency of individual is 12% and 30% of the persistent alcohol
dependency of the individual were contributed to self-medication of mood symptoms of alcohol.
The strength of the study lies in the research method of the study. The prospective study
had been conducted involving individuals that aid in obtaining the perception of the individuals
about alcohol dependency. The prospective study also aid in obtaining the changes of the result
while conducting the study. Moreover, the strength of the study is that the researchers conducted
a national survey, which provides the estimation of the alcohol dependency with persistent
alcohol dependency and self-medication of mood symptoms. The study reduced the selection of
potential bias. However, the study contains several limitations such as the researches did not
incorporate the experience of sampling methodology. Therefore, the study lacks the ability to
evaluate mood symptoms. Although the study has reduced the potential selection bias,
misclassification bias still exists in the study which required to reduce in order to obtain an
accurate result.

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Briones, T.L. and Woods, J., 2013. Chronic binge-like alcohol consumption in adolescence
causes depression-like symptoms possibly mediated by the effects of BDNF on
neurogenesis. Neuroscience, 254, pp.324-334.
The purpose of the study is to investigate whether changes in the neurogenesis and brain-
derived neurotrophic factors expressions are the most possible phenomenon, which involved the
depression during the period of alcohol withdrawal after a longer period of alcohol
consumptions. In the study, researchers suggested that the binge alcohol consumptions in the
United States are 12% higher in younger adults compared to other countries. The majority of the
individual who consumed a higher level of alcohol is in-between 12 years to17 years.
Consequently, they develop not only depression-like symptoms but also a tendency of alcohol
abuse and alcohol dependency at a very young age. The researchers conducted a controlled study
on 47 male rats who were subjected to the study when they are 25 days old. The rates were
divided into two groups, one were subjected to the ethanol or placebo. Further, they were
subjected to either the BDNF receptor agonist or vehicle. The rates were further subjected to the
self-administration of ethanol through training for 30minutes daily. The result of the study
showed that self-administration of alcohol in binge is more prone to alcohol abuse. The
consumption of alcohol is more likely to associate with the development of depression-like
symptoms. However, no significant difference observed in alcohol in the blood of the two group
of rats. Moreover, results also showed that the binge drinking of alcohol is associated with the
development of depression-like symptoms; reduce the probability of survival neuronal progenitor
cells present in the hippocampus of the brain. However, the prime finding of the study is that the
use of tyrosine kinase B help in BDNF actions that help in restoring neurogenesis and

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diminished the alcohol-induced the withdrawal period. Therefore, BDNF molecules can be
targeted for the further intervention of alcohol dependence depressive symptoms.
The strength of the study lies in the experimental methodology. The study showed a
significant decrease of BDNF protein levels along with the reduced expression of phosphorated
tyrosine B in the hippocampus of the rat. However, the limitation of the study is that the study
failed to consider another molecular mechanism that share the common signalling pathway with
the BDNF that might influence the neurogenesis and depression-like symptoms.
Summary:
These studies provided a clear understanding of the association of heavy alcohol
consumptions with the emotional inertia amongst young populations. Fairbairn, and Sayette,
(2013) through alcohol myopia test showed that the alcohol consumption, especially in the young
individuals allow to enjoy the current context of life and allow them to abolish the past
experience in the current context. Consequently, the individuals failed to connect the current
context with the experiences. Crum et al. (2013), highlighted through a prospective study that
the individuals who are alcohol dependent, continues consumptions increases the persistent
dependency in individuals which associated with self-medication of mood symptoms. Briones
and Woods, (2013), experimented on 47 rats, which suggested that the alcohol consumptions are
associated with the development of depression-like symptoms and augmenting BDNF actions by
the use of tyrosine kinase B agonist which help in restoring neurogenesis. Although the relevant
three articles chosen highlighted the associations between the alcohol consumption and
emotional health of individual the further studies are required for these articles. The research

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should be conducted in alternative clinical areas and social context for obtaining an accurate
result.

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References:
Adamson, E. and Dewar, B., 2015. Compassionate Care: Student nurses' learning through
reflection and the use of story. Nurse education in practice, 15(3), pp.155-161.
Briones, T.L. and Woods, J., 2013. Chronic binge-like alcohol consumption in adolescence
causes depression-like symptoms possibly mediated by the effects of BDNF on
neurogenesis. Neuroscience, 254, pp.324-334.
Crum, R.M., Mojtabai, R., Lazareck, S., Bolton, J.M., Robinson, J., Sareen, J., Green, K.M.,
Stuart, E.A., La Flair, L., Alvanzo, A.A. and Storr, C.L., 2013. A prospective assessment of
reports of drinking to self-medicate mood symptoms with the incidence and persistence of
alcohol dependence. JAMA psychiatry, 70(7), pp.718-726.
Cyders, M.A., VanderVeen, J.D., Plawecki, M., Millward, J.B., Hays, J., Kareken, D.A. and
O'connor, S., 2016. Gender‐specific effects of mood on alcohol‐seeking behaviors:
Preliminary findings using intravenous alcohol self‐administration. Alcoholism: Clinical and
Experimental Research, 40(2), pp.393-400.
Fairbairn, C.E. and Sayette, M.A., 2013. The effect of alcohol on emotional inertia: A test of
alcohol myopia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 122(3), p.770
Jamshed, S. 2014. Qualitative research method-interviewing and observation. Journal of
basic and clinical pharmacy, 5(4), 87.

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Mason, B.J., Quello, S., Goodell, V., Shadan, F., Kyle, M. and Begovic, A., 2014.
Gabapentin treatment for alcohol dependence: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA internal
medicine, 174(1), pp.70-77.
Morrissey J., & Callaghan P. 2011 Communication Skills for Mental Health Nurses. Open
University Press McGraw-Hill, Berkshire.
Simons, J.S., Emery, N.N., Simons, R.M., Wills, T.A. and Webb, M.K., 2017. Effects of
alcohol, rumination, and gender on the time course of negative affect. Cognition and
emotion, 31(7), pp.1405-1418.

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Appendix 1:
44 potentially
relevant
articles
identified
from database
search
10
Excluded
after
screening
34 articles retrieved
for more detailed
examination
31 papers
excluded after
full review
3 Journal
publications selected

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Appendix 2:
Article 1:
Article2:

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Article 3:

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