Depression is one of the most common mental health problems in the UK- experienced by as many as one in ten people in any year, - and it shares a complex, mutually reinforcing relationship with excessive alcohol consumption.

This means regardless of whether heavy alcohol consumption or depression came first, having one condition makes it significantly more likely the other will develop. In both cases however, the risk increases with greater consumption of alcohol: excessive drinking increases the chance of developing depression, and drinking while depressed both exacerbates depressive symptoms and makes recovery more difficult.....