Associations of Lifetime Abstention and Past and Current Alcohol Use with Late-Life Mental Health: A Propensity Score Analysis

A recent review of studies that examined health effects of alcohol consumption concludes that habitual light-to-moderate alcohol intake (up to 1 drink per day for women and 1 or 2 drinks per day for men) is associated with lower rates of death, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes mellitus, and stroke (O’Keefe et al., 2014). The review also reports that excessive alcohol intake, in a dose-dependent fashion, commonly causes irreversible hypertension and atrial fibrillation, accounts for one third of all cases of nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy, and markedly increases risks of both ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. Intakes above 2.5 drinks per day in women and 4 drinks per day in men were also associated with progressively higher death rates (O’Keefe et al., 2014).

Source: Drug and Alcohol Dependence - February 16, 2015 Category: Addiction Authors: C. Nathan Marti, Namkee G. Choi, Diana M. DiNitto, Bryan Y. Choi Tags: Full length article Source Type: research