Correlation Between Depression and Glycemic Control in Patients with Diabetes Mellitus: A Cross-Sectional Study in a Clinical Setting in India in the Year 2013

Diabetes mellitus is a medical disorder running a chronic course and often co-morbid with depressive disorders. Many physicians do not consider the presence of depressive symptoms per se to be adequate reason for further workup unless they are severe (e.g. suicidal thoughts). We aimed to assess depression in adult patients suffering from diabetes mellitus, to study the socio-demographic data associated with depression in patients suffering from diabetes mellitus, and to assess glycemic control in patients with and without co-morbid depression suffering from diabetes mellitus. This is a cross-sectional hospital-based study. The sample of the study comprised 100 outpatients with diabetes mellitus of either type-1 or type-2. After a semi-structured clinical interview, all patients were administered with the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.) and Becks depression inventory-II. The Chi-square test was utilized for testing the association between variables. To examine the difference between the two or three variables, the Mann-Whitney U test and the Kruskal-Wallis test were used. Among the individuals recruited for the study, 72% had depression and 28% were not affected by depression. The results showed there was a positive correlation between glycemic control, the presence of complications, the type, and duration of diabetes mellitus and depression. The results clearly indicated a high rate of occurrence of depression in diabetes mellitus. Patients with a long duration of diabetes mellitus, poor glycemic control, and the presence of complications of diabetes mellitus were more likely to be severely depressed.