SynthesisBMC psychiatry2022
Do interventions principally targeting excessive alcohol use in young people improve depression symptoms?: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMC psychiatry, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for adults with substance use disorder that have a co-occurring mental health disorder: an umbrella review and illustrative cost-effectiveness analysis.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2026Pooled it
- Mindfulness for heart and mind: Mindfulness-based blood pressure reduction randomized clinical trial for depression symptoms.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Trial
- Does Reducing Alcohol Use Among People with HIV Alleviate Psychological Distress and Symptoms of Depression? A Randomized Controlled Trial in Tshwane, South Africa.AIDS and behavior · 2024Trial
- Mental Health Among First-Year Students Transitioning to University in Australia: A Longitudinal Study.Psychological reports · 2026Article
- The price of care: alcohol misuse as a moderator of financial hardship and mental health outcomes of U.S. women caregivers.Archives of women's mental health · 2026Article
- Psychological aspects of rehabilitation nutrition: A position paper by the Japanese Association of Rehabilitation Nutrition (secondary publication).Journal of general and family medicine · 2024Article
- The association of alcohol dependence and consumption during adolescence with depression in young adulthood, in England: a prospective cohort study.The lancet. Psychiatry · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundExcessive alcohol use is common in young people and is associated with a range of adverse consequences including an increased risk of depression. Alcohol interventions are known to be effective in young people, however it is not known if these interventions can also improve depression.
objectiveTo investigate whether psychosocial interventions principally targeting excessive alcohol use in young people reduce depression symptoms compared to controls.
designWe conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled intervention trials, that measured depression symptoms at follow-up. We used a generic inverse variance random effect meta-analysis to pool the standardised mean difference in change in depression symptoms from baseline to follow-up between intervention and control arms. We used I DATA SOURCES: APA PsycNET, PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, Embase (including MEDLINE), and clinicaltrials.gov were searched for relevant studies published from inception to December 2020. Reference lists of studies were also searched, and authors contacted where articles presented insufficient data. STUDY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Intervention studies that primarily targeted existing excessive alcohol use in young people (aged 10 to 24) and assessed depression outcomes at baseline with a minimum of four-week follow-up.
resultsFive studies were included in the meta-analysis. Interventions targeting excessive alcohol use were associated with a reduction in depression symptoms from baseline to follow-up when compared to control, standardised mean difference = - 0.26, and 95% confidence interval [- 0.41, - 0.12], p < .001.
conclusionsThis study found evidence that interventions primarily targeting excessive alcohol use can reduce depression symptoms in young people. However, this finding should be taken with caution given concerns about risk of bias in all studies. More research is needed to examine whether these findings generalise beyond populations of undergraduate students primarily living in high income countries.
trial registrationPROSPERO registration number: CRD42020177260 .
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.