The Relationship Between Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms and Glycemic Control in Patients with Diabetes

Concomitant mental disorders may worsen the clinical conditions of patients with diabetes by affecting the quality of self-care regimens and treatment compliance. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between obsessive-compulsive symptoms and glycemic control in patients under diabetes treatment. In this cross-sectional study, 390 adult patients with type I and II diabetes were recruited. The patients were interviewed using the Yale-Brown obsessive-compulsive scale to evaluate the existence of obsessive-compulsive symptoms and their type and severity. In order to measure the quality of glycemic control, patients were evaluated for average glucose levels over the past two to three months, using HbA1c. HbA1c of more than seven was considered as poor glycemic control. Overall, 50.8% of the participants had considerable obsessive-compulsive symptoms. No significant difference was seen between obsessive-compulsive symptoms and age (P = 0.443) or type of diabetes (P = 0.1.7). Obsessive-compulsive symptoms were significantly higher in patients, who had HbA1C levels of more than 7% (P < 0.001). Familial history of diabetes was more frequent in patients with more obsessive-compulsive symptoms (P = 0.016). Regression analysis showed that the chance of being afflicted with obsessive-compulsive symptoms was 2.9 times more in females compared with males, and 5.5 higher in those with HbA1C > 7% than less than 7%. As a preliminary study, this study shows that remarkable obsessive-compulsive symptoms in patients with diabetes may be associated with poor glycemic control and there is a relationship between glycemic control and obsessive-compulsive symptoms, which may be more complex than a simple mental reaction to a chronic stressful disease.