Depression, Anxiety, and Stress among Hangover-Sensitive and Hangover-Resistant Drinkers

Andy J Kim; Agnese Merlo; Marlou Mackus; Gillian Bruce; Sean J Johnson; Chris Alford; Simon B Sherry; Sherry H Stewart; Joris C Verster

doi:10.3390/jcm12082766

Depression, Anxiety, and Stress among Hangover-Sensitive and Hangover-Resistant Drinkers

J Clin Med. 2023 Apr 7;12(8):2766. doi: 10.3390/jcm12082766.

Authors

Andy J Kim¹, Agnese Merlo², Marlou Mackus², Gillian Bruce³, Sean J Johnson⁴, Chris Alford⁵, Simon B Sherry¹, Sherry H Stewart^{1

6}, Joris C Verster^{2

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, 1355 Oxford St., Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada.
² Division of Pharmacology, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, 3584CG Utrecht, The Netherlands.
³ Division of Psychology, School of Education and Social Sciences, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley PA1 2BE, UK.
⁴ Centre for Trials Research, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF14 4YS, UK.
⁵ Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University, Melbourne, VIC 3122, Australia.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University, 5909 Veterans' Memorial Lane, Halifax, NS B3H 2E2, Canada.

Abstract

This study investigated potential differences in baseline (i.e., non-hangover-related) levels of depression, anxiety, and stress between individuals who are sensitive to and those resistant to hangovers after consuming alcohol. Participants included 5111 university students from the Netherlands and the U.K., including 3205 hangover-sensitive and 1906 hangover-resistant drinkers. All participants completed surveys on their demographics, alcohol consumption, and hangover susceptibility (whether they experienced a hangover in the past 12 months), as well as their baseline levels of depression, anxiety, and stress on the DASS-21 scale. The results showed that hangover-sensitive drinkers had significantly higher levels of anxiety and stress, but not depression, compared to hangover-resistant drinkers. However, the observed differences between the two groups were small, with a magnitude of less than 1 out of 42 points on the DASS-21 anxiety and stress subscales, and are thus unlikely to be clinically meaningful.

Keywords: alcohol; anxiety; depression; hangover; resistance; stress.

Grants and funding

This research received no external funding. Two of the original studies were supported by a grant from Red Bull GmbH. Red Bull GmbH was not involved in the design and conduct of the studies, the collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data, nor the preparation of the manuscript. The third study was supported by Utrecht University.