Diabetes and Depression

I was reading about a connection that has been established between depression and diabetes, indicating that "people with a high number of symptoms of depression were about 60 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes..."

My question is what is your guys' experience with the opposite? Experiencing symptoms of depression as a diabetic. I can say I've felt it...

Tags: depression

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Permalink Reply by George Simmons on May 14, 2007 at 1:32pm

I feel depressed a lot becuase of Diabetes so I too have felt it. Well, not so much about Diabetes but all the crap that comes along with it. That is what is most depressing to me. All of the things my doctor says "It's common with diabetics" about.

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Permalink Reply by Manny Hernandez on May 14, 2007 at 2:54pm

I hear you, George! I will never forget what my first endo told me: you will always have to work for a big company, because diabetics cannot get individual insurance... :S

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Permalink Reply by David Jacobs on July 25, 2007 at 3:22pm

Not being able to get individual insurance...that makes my blood boil. I had to form a company for my consulting business just to get small biz insurance.

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Permalink Reply by Sylvia on February 2, 2009 at 11:35am

That's better for you as a businessman anyway... it protects your personal assets. ;)

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Permalink Reply by Andreina Davila on May 14, 2007 at 3:43pm

I suffer from diabetes type III ;). My husband (Manny H) has diabetes type I.

I believe there is a lot of pressure associated with keeping your sugar under control. I mean, you know it has to be under control, so if it isn't, and you have done your part, (even if you haven't) it is very easy to feel frustrated and helpless. I believe the most important thing to keep in mind is that all of this is ok, and that the best thigh to do is to ask for help... ans of course, do some exercise. ;)

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Permalink Reply by Scott Strumello on May 16, 2007 at 3:06pm

This is a popular topic among researchers, yet they never seem to find any solutions to the issue. For example, in April, we learned that chronic depression or depression that worsens over time may actually cause diabetes to occur in older adults, according to new Northwestern University research.

But I found it even more interesting that a more recent study found that treating the depression did not result in improved glycemic control. Doctors had long assumed that the depression was a big reason for poor glycemic control, but the latest study showed that was not the case. As Andreina noted, I suspect they need to examine exactly what is involved in trying to manage a chronic condition 24/7/365. They might find that the treatment itself is the cause of the depression, not the disease!

Glycemic control not improved by depression treatment
Last Updated: 2007-04-26 10:03:01 -0400 (Reuters Health)
By Will Boggs, MD

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Improvements in depressive symptoms are not associated with improvements in glycemic control in diabetic patients, according to a report in the current issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.

"While clinical depression should be treated in all patients, treating depressed mood (non-clinical depression) in patients with type 2 diabetes as a strategy to improve glycemic control is not effective," Dr. Richard S. Surwit from Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina told Reuters Health.

Dr. Surwit and associates investigated whether changes in affective symptoms after cognitive behavior therapy would differentially affect glycemic control in 28 patients with type 1 diabetes and 62 with type 2 diabetes. Twenty-one type 1 diabetes patients and 44 type 2 patients completed the 12-month follow-up period.

Overall, changes in depression symptoms, as measured by Beck Depression Index (BDI), did not affect HbA1c level or fasting blood glucose concentration, the authors report.

Similarly, although post-treatment Hamilton Depression Scale values improved for all patients, these improvements were not matched by improvements in HbA1c or fasting blood glucose.

Even among the subgroup of 17 patients with clinical depression, the researchers note, there was no evidence of an improvement in HbA1c level as depression improved.

"The working hypothesis of the present study was that improving depression through cognitive behavior therapy would differentially impact patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes," Dr. Surwit said. "Therefore, the finding that significantly improving BDI with cognitive behavior therapy failed to impact HbA1C in either type 1 or type 2 patients was somewhat of a surprise."

"We are currently investigating the relationship between depression and the onset of diabetes in a large longitudinal sample of Viet Nam veterans," Dr. Surwit added. His team is also "studying the effects of hostility, a personality construct with some overlap with depression, on glycemic control in various non-diabetic populations."

Psychosom Med 2007;69:235-241.

URL for this article:
http://www.lifescan.com/professionals/hcp/news/20070426clin013/

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Permalink Reply by Manny Hernandez on May 17, 2007 at 4:06am

I think you're on to something here. My endo tells me he sees an unusually high number of cases of depression among his diabetic patients compared to his other patients.

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Permalink Reply by PatientX on January 30, 2010 at 4:45am

I wonder how much of this depression is induced by the medicines that type 2 diabetics are put on. I had never felt depression until I was put on Januvia. I read the fine print and noticed that depression is a side effect of the medicine. When I was on insulin I never really felt depressed. I was put on a cocktail of meds and then I started to feel it. I stopped Januvia and the depression started to get better. So my question is how much is depression related to the medicine

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Permalink Reply by Kirsten Sigrist on June 26, 2007 at 7:38am

Yes, as the mom of a D toddler, I have been completely overwhelmed by the stress caused by trying to manage this disease.

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Permalink Reply by Manny Hernandez on June 7, 2007 at 3:50pm

Thought this was an interesting article, in case you guys want to share your own stories:
http://www.diabeteshealth.com/read/2007/06/07/5231.html

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Permalink Reply by Deborah on June 10, 2007 at 1:29pm

I've been depressed off and on (more on than off) most of my life. I'm also comfort eater and have been overweight since puberty. Is there a correlation? There could very well be, however, I don't think I'll ever know. I'm the only one in my family* with diabetes so there doesn't appear to be a genetic link.

As for diabetes and depression in general, depression does seem to go hand in hand with chronic illness. And who can blame us?

*I think my paternal grandmother may have had it but I have no way of finding out. My oldest brother is concerned because of a recent blood test that indicated his sugar levels are high (I don't know the details). He had been over 300 lbs but has since lost about 75 of them (I don't know if he's been tested since the weight loss). Yay Bro!

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Permalink Reply by Karen on June 10, 2007 at 6:03pm

I have been Type 1 for 40 years and never really thought about being depressed until I aimed for tighter control and tried different forms of insulin from what I had used for 35 years. I had a lot of issues and a hard time moving into MDI and then finally the pump and understanding how carbs effected my bgs control, as I was clueless for most of my diabetic life. My internist explained to me how a chronic illness could cause depression and anxiety and I so did not believe her. She put me on Effexor and wow things are so much easier to deal with being on this medication.