Diabetes Worsened By Depression And Eating Disorders

Filed in archive Research on November 16, 2006

Parents of teenage diabetics may be especially concerned, as depression and eating disorders are commonly experienced by that age group.

Eating disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse and self-harm are more common in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes than in the general population, Wittenberg says.

When type 1 diabetes is first diagnosed, 64 per cent of children feel sad and 36 per cent suffer from psychiatric illness. Seven to eight months later, most have recovered, but trouble sometimes lurks in the future. Ten years later, nearly 48 per cent of all adolescents with type 1 diabetes are at risk for developing a psychiatric disorder. And while four per cent of girls ages 12 to 19 in the general population suffer from an eating disorder, this number jumps to 10 per cent of adolescent girls with type 1 diabetes.