"One plus one equals much more than two..."

As I will not be collecting any data until March 12, I want to share some of the interesting facts I've been finding during my preliminary research on diabetes and depression. Did you know that depression is the most prevalent psychiatric disorder observed in the diabetic population?¹

In my first blog post, "And so it begins…," I described how I wanted to study diabetes in conjunction with an unconventionally thought-of diabetic complication, depression. So if depression is the most prevalent psychiatric disorder that is diagnosed in diabetics, why is it that I felt it was unconventionally thought-of?

It's because even if depression is the most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorder in diabetics, this doesn't mean that it's commonly diagnosed. In fact, depression commonly goes undiagnosed and untreated¹, which is why I thought it was a particularly dangerous complication. Additionally, Patrick Lustman, Ph.D at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis simply puts,

"One plus one equals much more than two when you add diabetes and depression. Because of physiologic and behavioral interactions between diabetes and depression, each becomes more difficult to control, increasing the risks of cardiovascular disease, diabetic retinopathy causing blindness, neuropathy and other complications."²

When you take into account that diabetes is already the seventh leading cause of death³ in the United States, it really puts into perspective the potential lethality of having depression in addition to diabetes. I am very much looking forward to conducting my patient interviews next week. As always, thanks for reading.

Lalani.


¹Diabetes.co.uk - The Global Diabetes Community. (2012). Diabetes and depression. Retrieved from http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-and-depression.html. 
²McMan's Depression and Bipolar Web. (2004). Depression and Diabetes. Retrieved from http://www.mcmanweb.com/article-42.htm. 
³National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse. (February 2011). National Diabetes Statistics, 2011. Retrieved from http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/DM/PUBS/statistics/#fast.