Connection between depression and diabetes

Antidepressants favor diabetes in depression patients

05/10/2012

Depression and diabetes are often interdependent. For example, every eighth diabetes patient suffers from depression and, conversely, depressive people have a 30 percent higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes, reported psychologist Dr. med. Bernhard Kulzer at a pre-press conference for the Diabetes Congress 2012.

The latest findings on the interplay between depression and diabetes are one of the main topics of the 47th Annual Meeting of the German Diabetes Association (DDG) in Stuttgart. It is known that diabetes is a risk factor for depression and that depression can trigger diabetes, Dr. Kulzer, Chairman of the Diabetes and Psychology Working Group of the German Diabetes Society and Managing Director of the Research Institute of the Diabetes Academy Bad Mergentheim in the run-up to the Diabetes Congress 2012.

Reduced quality of life as a trigger of depression
As part of the DDG Annual Meeting, the experts also get to the root of the relationship between the risk of diabetes and the risk of depression. Because it is no coincidence that every eighth person with diabetes (just under 13 percent) suffers from depression and about 20 percent, according to the researchers have increased depression. There are also reasons for depression patients to be at a 30 percent higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Kulzer. According to experts, the risk of depression increases for diabetic patients, as life with so-called diabetes can be a serious emotional burden. Because people with diabetes have, according to On the other hand, depression can have a negative effect on the metabolism, which means that patients with a healthy metabolism have a relatively high tendency to develop type 2 diabetes.

Cause depression and increase diabetes
Deciding for the development of diabetes in depressed patients according to the experts is often the intake of antidepressants, which can cause a significant increase in weight and a decreased body cell response to insulin or insulin resistance. In addition, the mental stress in people with diabetes by the continuous activation of the stress axis leads to inflammatory processes in the vessels, which are in any case particularly at risk in diabetics. This significantly increases the risk of complications in diabetes patients due to depression. Kulzer. "In order to avoid low blood glucose levels and complications in people with diabetes, it is important, according to the expert, to recognize and treat both increased depression and depression early on."

Degradation of diabetes research?
At the Diabetes Congress 2012, diabetologists, psychologists and other experts will discuss and inform about the latest discoveries in diabetes research from 16 to 19 May in Stuttgart. In the run-up, Andreas Fritsche, spokesman for the German Diabetes Association, also criticized the development in the field of diabetes research, because the number of chairs focusing on diabetes has been halved to less than ten in Germany over the last decade and the renowned diabetes research institute in Munich has closed its doors. Furthermore, the contact and research opportunities for the doctors in the clinics have been reduced, since the patients are now more often outpatient and no longer inpatient care, explained Fritsche and added: own diabetes departments at the hospitals there is hardly any. Although the need for the seven million people who suffer from a diagnosed diabetes according to the initiators of the congress in this country seems quite given. Especially since according to the experts added another three million sufferers who live with the disease, without knowing it. (Fp)

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