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Diabetes and Depression Go Hand in Hand
Mary de Groot, PhD, and colleagues, report in a recent study that a significant portion of diabetics also suffer from comorbid depression. They screened 221 diabetics (the majority of whom had type 2 diabetes) for depression with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale and surveyed the depressed probands on whether or not they were receiving psychiatric treatment. Strikingly, 25.3% of the participants met criteria for clinical depression. Of those, 76% reported treatment. African Americans meeting depression criteria were significantly less likely to report receiving treatment than were whites, leading the study’s authors to suggest that depression screening and treatment might be beneficial for ethnically diverse diabetes patients. The study appeared in Diabetes Care. http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/29/3/549