Diabetes and Depression Can Be a Fatal Mix

Diabetes and Depression proves to be a fatal mix in the recent shooting at an Illinois college . . .

The Illinois college shooter had diabetes, his father said, and the police said the man halted his medication. Type 2 diabetes and depression can be a fatal mix.

Patients whose type 2 diabetes was accompanied by minor or major depression had higher mortality rates, compared to patients with type 2 diabetes alone, over the three-year period of a recent study in Washington state.

Depression is common among people who have type 2 diabetes. This high prevalence can have unfortunate repercussions.

Dr. Wayne Katon, professor and vice chair of the UW Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, led the recent study. He is a noted researcher on the associations between depression, aging, and chronic diseases, and on the medical costs and personal toll from untreated or inadequately treated depression.

People with depression and diabetes were also more likely to have three or more heart disease risk factors, such as smoking, obesity, and a sedentary lifestyle, compared to people with diabetes alone.

Depression may increase complications, not only because of poor self-care, but possibly through the brain chemistry and nervous system abnormalities that accompany depression, the researchers noted.

Patients with diabetes and major depression were significantly younger, less likely to be married, and more likely to be female than were diabetes patient without depression. They were also more likely to smoke, to be sedentary, to have obesity, and to have been treated with insulin.

Compared to diabetes patients with minor depression, those with major depression were more likely to be younger, female, and unemployed.

Source: Toronto Daily News