Depressive Symptoms Linked to Diabetes Development in Older Adults

Filed in archive Information , Research on April 25, 2007

Older adults who have experienced symptoms of depression are more likely to develop diabetes compared to those who did not.

At least the depressive symptoms related to mood, irritability, calorie intake, concentration and sleep.

I haven't been clinically depressed but I know bouts of depression. And when I am depressed, I tend to be irritable and have difficulty sleeping. Therefore, to feel better and compensate for the lack of sleep, I load myself with tons of sweets, junk food and carbo-rich food.

And I am only nearing my mid-30s. Imagine that scenario in an older person, say 10-20 years older who probably already have metabolism problem on top of being really, really depressed.

No wonder that developing type 2 diabetes is more likely.

Exactly the findings reported in the April 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine (one of the JAMA/Archives journals):

"In this sample of older adults, a single report of high depressive symptoms, an increase in symptoms with time and persistently high symptoms over time are each associated with an excess incidence of diabetes," the authors write.

Furthermore, increasing symptoms with time are associated with incident diabetes beyond initial high depressive symptoms and the association between increasing scores and incident diabetes was strongest among those with initially low baseline scores."

Read the full report.