Alcohol-dependent patients have electrical activity in their brains that is similar to patterns seen in patients with major depression, researchers say. Measured with an electroencephalograph, the brains of patients diagnosed with alcohol dependence had less activity in the left anterior cortex than in the right.
Such a pattern has already been observed in patients with major depression or a lifetime history of depression. Surprisingly, however, those who were both alcohol dependent and suffering from depression had less imbalance in electrical activity between the two brain regions, the researchers found.
