Frequency of Psychiatric Symptoms in Diabetic Patients

Psychiatric disorders are common among different groups of patients and could have adverse effects on their social functioning. Specific populations, such as diabetic patients, are known to be more vulnerable to psychiatric disorders. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms among diabetic patients. In this study, 100 diabetic patients were selected using convenience sampling. For comparison, a population consisting of 100 non-diabetic patients was selected, and samples were matched in terms of age, education status and socio-economic status. The two groups were evaluated using the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), consisting of 90 items for the diagnostic assessment of psychiatric disorders. In the Iranian population, cut-off point of SCL-90-R has been reported to be 0.4. According to the theoretical observations of this study, psychiatric symptoms are more prevalent among diabetic patients compared to non-diabetic ones. In addition, scores of different psychiatric scales were higher in diabetic patients, with the highest and lowest scores belonging to anxiety (2.66±0.88) and psychosis (0.99±0.67), respectively. According to the results of this study, high frequency of psychiatric symptoms in diabetic patients is indicative of the vulnerability of these individuals to mental disorders. Therefore, it is recommended that regular assessments and timely referrals for treatment be performed in order to implement accurate mental health interventions for these patients.