9/27/2013

What is the correlation between diabetes and depression and what are the contributing factors? Or is it that diabetes causes depression, what is the link between them? These are only a few of the questions on most people's mind who might be depressed or suffering from diabetes.



What I can tell you as a person who watched his father suffer from the debilitating effect of diabetes and depression for many years and eventually losing his battle, is that I see a connection, but I am not a Doctor so I can't say what it is.



In my humble opinion and as a first-hand witness to the dreadful effects of diabetes, I tend to believe that depression is as a result of the person's inability to cope with the disease psychologically in a rational way.



However, this is not to say that a person cannot have depression first, as they will eventually become frustrated and fed up at the fact that they are basically helpless.



My father was a proud man, independent and self-assured, but became depressed when he had to go the Doctor for treatment; also because he had to go on a diet, he had a sort of sweet tooth.



Diabetes and Depression connection



As far as the experts in the field go, they are not even sure what is the relationship between diabetes and depression, but they are certain that there is a connection.



They suggest that with 30% of diabetes patients suffering from depression, that there must a be link somewhere, investigations are still on going to find the connection.



The fact is that most illnesses will have a physiological effect on the person who is suffering, especially if they have to be constantly monitoring their food intake and having to constantly check their blood sugar levels.



This will only put them in a depressed state of mind, not to mention causing an emotional drain on their physical body, if they are suffering from both diabetes and depression.



This negative emotional state of diabetes and depression can even exact a higher price from someone suffering from diabetes, in that this emotional state can make it harder to focus on the job at hand, which is trying to control their blood sugar levels.



This paradox can even leave the person at an even great risk of developing other diabetes complications, like heart disease for example.



Diabetes and Depression have experts baffle



According to reports from Clinical Psychiatry News, one in five people suffering from type 1 and 2 diabetes mellitus were suffering from some form of depression before showing symptoms of diabetes.



This realization has cause experts to ask the question of whether it wasn't depression that triggered the diabetes in the first place?



The Johns Hopkins University did a study of 2000 people over a 13 year period to answer this particular issue about diabetes and depression and they findings were alarming to say the least.



They study showed that people who are depressed are more than two times more likely than others who are not depressed to develop diabetes mellitus.



However, contrary to this, a study carried out in Canada by researchers who had examine the health records of around 90,000 people lasting over 12 years, found that because of new diagnoses criteria for depression of diabetics and non-diabetics, the result were the same.



The conclusion of the study was quite promising, in that it suggests that because a person had type 2 diabetes mellitus, it did not mean that they were at risk of developing depression.
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