been shown to cause an 800% increased risk of psychotic disorders in men and a 300% increased risk of psychotic disorders in women which are not related to pre-existing psychiatric disorders. this is significantly higher than the increased risk of psychotic disorders seen from cannabis use making alcohol misuse a very significant cause of psychotic disorders. approximately 3 percent of people who are alcohol dependent experience psychosis during acute intoxication or withdrawal. alcohol-related psychosis may manifest itself through a kindling mechanism. the mechanism of alcohol-related psychosis is due to distortions to neuronal membranes, gene expression, as well as thiamin deficiency. it is possible in some cases that excessive alcohol use, via a kindling mechanism, can cause the development of a chronic substance-induced psychotic disorder, i.e. schizophrenia. the effects of an alcohol-related psychosis include an increased risk of depression and suicide as well as psychosocial impairments. however, moderate wine drinking has been shown to lower the risk for depression. while alcohol initially helps social phobia or panic symptoms, with longer term alcohol misuse can often worsen social phobia symptoms and can cause panic disorder to develop or worsen, during alcohol intoxication and especially during the alcohol withdrawal syndrome. this effect is not unique to alcohol but can also occur with long-term use of drugs which have a similar mechanism of action to alcohol such as the benzodiazepines, which are sometimes prescribed as tranquilizers to people with alcohol problems. approximately half of patients attending mental health services for conditions including anxiety disorders such as panic disorder or social phobia have alcohol or benzodiazepine dependence. it was noted that every individual has an individual sensitivity level to alcohol or sedative hypnotic drugs and what one person can tolerate without ill health another will have very ill health and that even moderate drinking can cause rebound anxiety syndromes and sleep disorders. a person who is experiencing the toxic effects of alcohol will not benefit from other therapies or medications as they do not address the root cause of the symptoms. addiction to alcohol, as with any addictive substance tested so far, has been correlated with an enduring reduction in the expression of glt1 (eaat2) in the nucleus accumbens and is implicated in the drug-seeking behavior expressed nearly universally across all documented addiction syndromes. this long-term dysregulation of glutamate transmission is associated with an increase in vulnerability to both relapse-events after re-exposure to drug-use triggers as well as an overall increase in the likelihood of developing addiction to other reinforcing drugs. drugs which help to re-stabilize the glutamate system such as n-acetylcysteine have been proposed for the treatment of addiction to cocaine, nicotine, and alcohol. the effect on depression and returning to drinking among individuals with alcohol dependence has always been controversial. studies show that after doing a study on men and women hospitalized for alcohol dependence the likelihood of returning to drinking with depression is extremely high. a diagnosis of major depression at entry into an inpatient treatment for alcohol dependence showed shorter times to first drink and also relapse in both women and men. digestive system and weight gain