Open Access

Diana Guertler, Anne Moehring, Kristian Krause, Anil Batra, Sandra Eck, Jennis Freyer-Adam, Sabina Ulbricht, Hans-Jürgen Rumpf, Gallus Bischof, Ulrich John, Christian Meyer

• Objective To predict depressive symptom severity and presence of major depression along the full alcohol use continuum. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Ambulatory practices and general hospitals from three sites in Germany. Participants Consecutive patients aged 18–64 years were proactively approached for an anonymous health screening (participation rate=87%, N=12 828). Four continuous alcohol use measures were derived from an expanded Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT): alcohol consumption in grams per day and occasion, excessive consumption in days per months and the AUDIT sum score. Depressive symptoms were assessed for the worst 2-week period in the last 12 months using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8). Negative binomial and logistic regression analyses were used to predict depressive symptom severity (PHQ-8 sum score) and presence of major depression (PHQ-8 sum score≥10) by the alcohol use measures. Results Analyses revealed that depressive symptom severity and presence of major depression were significantly predicted by all alcohol use measures after controlling for sociodemographics and health behaviours (p<0.05). The relationships were curvilinear: lowest depressive symptom severity and odds of major depression were found for alcohol consumptions of 1.1 g/day, 10.5 g/occasion, 1 excessive consumption day/month, and those with an AUDIT score of 2. Higher depressive symptom severity and odds of major depression were found for both abstinence from and higher levels of alcohol consumption. Interaction analyses revealed steeper risk increases in women and younger individuals for most alcohol use measures. Conclusion Findings indicate that alcohol use and depression in medical care patients are associated in a curvilinear manner and that moderation by gender and age is present.