Wine, alcohol, and depression
In PREDIMED adults, low-to-moderate alcohol—especially wine—associated with lower incident depression risk versus abstaining, while heavy drinking looked riskier.
Source
Alcohol intake, wine consumption and the development of depression: the PREDIMED study
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cohort — Observational analysis within PREDIMED participants
- N
- N=5505 · Older Mediterranean adults; 443 incident depression cases
- Population
- Older adults in the PREDIMED Mediterranean cohort
- Outcome
- Incident depression by baseline alcohol/wine intake (Cox HRs)
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Inspect source passages
Wine, alcohol, and depression
These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.
443 incident depression cases during follow-up.
A total of 443 incident cases of depression were identified during the follow-up period, which accrued 23,655 person-years.
Wine accounted for 82% of alcohol intake variability.
Wine consumption accounted for 82% of alcohol intake variability in this sample.
What they did
Among 5,505 older Mediterranean adults, investigators related baseline alcohol/wine intake to 443 incident depression cases over follow-up using Cox models.
What they found
Low-to-moderate intake (>5–15 g/day) had HR 0.72 (95% CI 0.53–0.98); wine dominated alcohol intake (82% of variability); heavy drinkers appeared at higher risk.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Observational design cannot prove alcohol prevents depression; confounding and residual healthy-user effects remain.
Key terms
- PREDIMED
- Mediterranean diet trial cohort used for this depression analysis.
- Incident depression
- New depression cases during follow-up.
- Low-to-moderate intake
- About >5 to 15 g alcohol per day in this analysis.
- Hazard ratio
- Relative instantaneous risk versus the reference intake group.
- Abstainers
- Reference group reporting no alcohol intake.
- Wine-predominant intake
- Wine explained most alcohol variability in this sample.
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Design?
Common questions
Sample size?
5,505 participants.
Incident cases?
443 depression cases.
Key HR?
0.72 for >5–15 g/day vs abstainers.
Beverage pattern?
Wine accounted for 82% of alcohol intake variability.
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