Epidemiologic features of depression in non–insulin dependent diabetic patients in Semnan

Depression is a disease with serious complications and a high disability rate. Diabetic patients are more commonly affected than the normal population blood sugar control and preventing the consequences of diabetes are more complex in depressed patients. Early diagnosis of depression has been shown to be associated with better blood sugar control and response rate.

This Cross sectional study was performed on 450 NIDDM patients seen at Fatemieh Hospital Diabetes Clinic in Semnan during an 8-month period. Beck inventory questionnaire for depression was used for data collection. Beck inventory is a depression screening test having 21 indicators 13 cognitive and 8 for physical symptoms. To analyze the data, the Beck test scores for each case were added. Scores of 0–9 were considered as "without depression", 10-18 "slight depression", 19–29 "moderate depression" and scores of 30-63 as "severe depression". Chi–square test and Spearman correlation coefficient were used for data analysis.

322 patients (71.6%) suffered from depression (95%CI=67.4–75.8),(79.2% of females and 57.3% of males) 66.9% of patients had been diagnosed during the past 5 years, and 78.3% of those having had diabetes for more than 16 years had suffered from depression with different degrees of severity. There was a significant association between the severity of depression and gender (p=0.0001), age (p=0.0001) and duration of disease (p=0.023).

Because of the high prevalence of depression in these patients, it is recommended to identify the cases of depression using Beck inventory in addition to routine treatment for controlling their blood sugar. Meanwhile, there should be special emphasis on encouraging self-care in diabetic patients.