Depression

[captainlynne]

Is there a connection between depression and diabetes?

I've suffered from clinical depression on and off for most of my life, successfully treated with medication (usually MAOIs - Prozac etc had nasty side-effects). To cut long story short, diagnosed with T2 in September, now starting on the slippery slop into depression again. So saw locum gp this afternoon asking for meds. Said he hoped to complete his career without prescribing MAOIs and has prescribed Mirtazapine.

How is this medication likely to affect my bg levels? Diabetes is mentioned on the information leaflet with the tablet - says to take special care!

Any information welcome.

Lynne

 

[LittleSue]

A lot of diabetics get depressed, so do lots of non-diabetics, but of course we have extra things like complications and hypos to worry about.

The leaflet probably means the Mirtazepine might affect your sugar levels or your hypo awareness. Everyone's different so they cover themselves by being vague rather than specifically saying the meds will raise or lower bs, because some people might get the opposite effect. It boils down to you need to test more than usual and see what effect they have on your bs, if anything.

When I was on antidepressants the major problem was they made my mouth so dry and sticky, which felt like high bs all the time, making it easy to miss a hypo. My diabetic control was already pretty random but I don't remember the antidepressants making it any worse.