Depression is implicated in diabetes said Padmashri & Dr B C Roy National Awardee, Dr K K Aggarwal, President Heart Care Foundation of India and MTNL Perfect Health Mela.
For many years it was thought that depression was a complication of diabetes. More recent research, however, points to depression as a possible trigger.
A Kaiser Permanente study of 1,680 subjects found that those with diabetes were more likely to have been treated for depression within six months before their diabetes diagnosis. About 84 percent of diabetics also reported a higher rate of earlier depressive episodes.
A 2004 Johns Hopkins study tracking 11,615 initially non diabetic adults aged 48-67 over six years found that "depressive symptoms predicted incident type 2 diabetes."
According to an evaluation of 20 studies over the past 10 years, the prevalence rate of diabetics with major depression is three to four times greater than in the general population. While depression affects maybe three or five percent of the population at any given time, the rate is between 15 and twenty percent in patients with diabetes, according to the American Diabetic Association. Women, in particular are at greater risk.
Whether a cause or an effect, the combination of diabetes and depression can be deadly. Because of physiologic and behavioral interactions between diabetes and depression, each becomes more difficult to control, increasing the risks of cardiovascular disease, diabetic retinopathy causing blindness, neuropathy and other complications.
Obesity is a risk factor for macrovascular disease. Depressed people tend to eat more and exercise less, which results in weight gain and sabotages efforts at controlling blood sugar levels. Depressed adults with diabetes have significantly higher body mass indexes than nondepressed adults with diabetes.
Depression in diabetics is a greater risk factor for heart disease than high blood sugar.
If depression can trigger diabetes or make it much worse, it stands to reason that effectively managing one's depression can help bring one's diabetes under control.
The take home message is
1. If you have diabetes get screened for depression
2. And if you have depression get screened for diabetes
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