For how we live.
Two popular stories — alcohol as a cause of low mood, and drinking as self-medication for it — both get less support from recent genetic and within-person data than the confident telling suggests.
In the first humanitarian trial of its kind, 400 refugees and hosts were randomised. AUDIT scores fell 4.6 points more with screening and brief intervention than with usual care at six months.
A meta-analysis of 118 trials found acamprosate and naltrexone reduce drinking, with numbers needed to treat comparable to common heart drugs. They remain widely underused.
The first federal survey to ask about psilocybin specifically finds 2.8% past-year use, concentrated among young, white, college-educated men. People with recent depression had 37% higher odds.
An analysis of nearly 139,000 Americans finds sedative misuse for sleep clusters among both the socially advantaged and the chronically unwell — pointing to two distinct drivers behind the same behavior.