Diabetes and depression

From Reuters:

Elderly people who are depressed are more likely to become diabetic than those who are not, according to a study that suggests depression may play a role in causing the most common form of diabetes.

Writing on Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the researchers said people with a high number of symptoms of depression were about 60 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, formerly called adult-onset diabetes, than people not considered depressed.

Unlike some other studies examining a link between depression and diabetes, this one looked at the effects not only of single bouts of depression but also of chronic depression and depression that worsened over time. It found an increased risk for diabetes in each of those scenarios.

Researchers tracked 4,681 men and women in North Carolina, California, Maryland and Pennsylvania ages 65 and older, with an average age of 73, who did not have diabetes when the study began in 1989.

Depression is notoriously under diagnosed in the elderly, with as many as 2 million people suffering from it. Symptoms are often written of to ill health and grief reaction to loses of mobility, independence, friends and loved ones. Most could be treated and relieved of their suffering.

On theory says that a high level of the stress hormone cortisol in depressed people may be the reason. High cortisol levels may cut insulin sensitivity and raise fat deposits around the waist, leading to increased Type II Diabetes risk.

But there’s another aspect to look at here. Some psych meds cause what my shrink called Metabolic Effect, a syndrome in which blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar rise in response to the drugs. While getting off risperdal took care of most of my problems, with cholesterol and blood sugar issues going away, I still need to take a mild blood pressure pill to counteract the affects of my Geodon. So I wonder if there’s a breakdown of diabetes in treated versus untreated patients.

Either way, depression is a serious problem that needs to be addressed, and tighter screening of elderly patients is vital. Not only for their physical health, but for their mental health as well.

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