Binge drinking and mental health problems in the depression/anxiety spectrum often begin in adolescence as co-occurring phenomena.

To evaluate the mediating role of socioeconomic status in the association between binge drinking and adolescent depression/anxiety.

A prospective cohort study of adolescents (n=3008), with 4 follow-up assessments between July 2006 and July 2010.

Family Panel, Institut d’Infància i Mon Urbà, Catalonia.

Adolescents and their parents.

The presence or absence of a diagnosis of depression/anxiety was determined at T1 and at T4 in interviews with parents. Binge drinking, defined as 2 monthly binges or more, was assessed at T1, T2 and T3 through interviews with the adolescent study participants, and the responses recorded as variables (yes or no). Age, sex, income, parents’ level of education, number of friends, peer pressure, parental pressure, and risk-prone friends were included as variables in data analysis. Descriptive and inferential statistics and simple and multivariate logistics models were applied to study the long-term effect of alcohol consumption on depression/anxiety.

Binge drinking is a risk factor for depression/anxiety in the last year of follow-up T3 (OR:1.7, IC 95%: 1.1-2.5). After adjusting for age and sex, the risk remains. The risk of depression decreases as household income increases (OR: 1.47, IC 95%: 0.9-2.4].

Binge drinking increases the risk of depression and anxiety disorders mainly in adolescents from low-income families. Mental health interventions and treatment for addiction should be sensitive to the effect of socioeconomic inequalities in this age group.