I don't have the answer to your question. All I know is that, before I started taking prescription medicine for my bipolar disorder, I used to drink every night. I quit for seven years only to start again when I became quite manic in Berlin. I'll never forget the night it happened. Seven years of sobriety down the drain in about seven seconds. I have three or four beers a week now, no more, and don't think I have a problem with alcohol. I drink my beers when I'm depressed and when I'm manic. It doesn't seem to have any effect on either state. I do recognize that my drinking before was, essentially, self-medication.