CHAPEL HILL, N.C., April 30 (UPI) -- The relationship between mood and alcohol use is not the same for everyone, U.S. researchers suggest.
Andrea Hussong of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill asked adolescents to complete daily diaries with ratings of their mood and alcohol use over 21 days.
The study, published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, found adolescents with behavioral problems drink more in general -- irrespective of mood -- but only adolescents without behavioral problems drink more often when feeling depressed.
If psychologists discover that certain kinds of people are more likely to drink when depressed, it would be possible to help those people earlier, Daniel J. Bauer, a colleague of Hussong, says.
"Ultimately, the idea would be to identify people who might be more at risk and try to help them," Bauer says in a statement.
