Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Depressive syndrome is a common psychiatric disorder in type 2 diabetic patients (T2DM), with negative outcomes in metabolic control and risk of developing cronic complications among these patients.

Aims: i) To know the prevalence of depressive syndrome in a group of 113 T2DM seen consecutively in an endocrinologic outpatient clinic. ii) To analyze if there are any sociodemographic, clinical or biochemical differences between T2DM with positive screening for depressive syndrome and/or antidepressant treatment and T2DM who do not meet these criteria.

Materials and methods: One hundred and thirteen T2DM (68.1% men, age 59.5±8.3 years, diabetes duration 11.2±8.4 years) were evaluated for depressive symptoms using the Beck Depression Inventory Questionnaire (BDI). Sociodemographic (gender, ethnic group, marital status, studies), clinical (smoking, alcohol consumption, type of hipoglycaemic drugs, BMI, waist circumference, known microvascular or macrovascular complications related to T2DM, hypertension, antidepressant drugs) and biochemical (HbA1c, lipid profile) data were obtained from the patient’s medical history. A screening in BDI>13 and/or taking antidepressant therapy was considered positive for depressive syndrome.

Results: We found a positive screening for depression in 54.9% T2DM evaluated. Only 50% of these patients positively screened were treated with antidepressants. Moreover, we found that the greater the duration of T2DM, the higher the risk of depression existed (P<0.001). As in the general population, we found more risk for depression in females (P<0.001), smoking (P<0.01) and being single (P<0.02). Having diabetic retinopathy was more related to depressive syndrome than any other complication related to T2DM (P<0.03).

Conclusions: There is a high prevalence of depressive syndrome in T2DM and it’s often undertreated. However, we did not find any differences in metabolic control.