Depression linked with diabetes risk

Tue, 23 Nov 2010
Those who suffer from diabetes are more likely to develop depression than non-diabetics, and people who are depressed have a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, it has been reported. The new research also showed that the worse the diabetes or depression, the greater the risk for the other condition.

Published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the study revealed that patients who took antidepressants for depression were found to have a greater risk of developing diabetes than those who didn’t, and that people with diabetes who were taking insulin for their condition were much more likely to suffer from depression than people not taking the hormone .

Frank Hu, from the Harvard School of Public Health, who led the research, said "We can say that the two conditions are linked to each other and are both the causes and the consequences of each other."

The study involved 65,381 women aged between 50 and 75 who were being treated for depression and new cases of type 2 diabetes over a 10-year period. They were asked questions regarding their physical and mental health every two years, as well as providing information on lifestyle factors, including their body mass index (BMI), which is linked to both the risk of both diabetes and depression .

After taking these factors into account, depressed people were 17 per cent more likely to develop diabetes than those who had no depression .

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