Approximately 15 million U.S. adults are probably diagnosed with depression each year and more than 23.5 million people suffer from diabetes. Diabetes and its complications are considered as the leading causes of death worldwide. According to a latest study, women with depression and diabetes have tremendous threat of death from heart disease.
While conducting the study, 78,282 women aged 54 to 79 years in 2000 diagnosed with depression were treated through antidepressant medications and scored high on an index measuring depressive symptoms. Type 2 diabetes was confirmed after using a supplementary questionnaire. On completion of a six year follow-up, 4,654 women died among whom 979 were unable to survive due to cardiovascular disease.
Authors explain, “The underlying mechanisms of the increased mortality risk associated with depression in patients with diabetes remains to be elucidated. It is generally suggested that depression is associated with poor glycemic control, an increased risk of diabetes complications, poor adherence to diabetes management by patients and isolation from the social network.”
An Pan, Ph.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and colleagues compared women without either of the condition to those having depression, women with diabetes and subjects suffering from both conditions. The risk of death was almost twice among 44 percent having depression and 35 percent with diabetes. In comparison to the risk of death in depression and diabetes, women with both the conditions possibly had double the threat of dying. When considering only deaths from cardiovascular disease, women with diabetes supposedly were at 67 percent increased chances, those depressed had a 37 percent heightened threat and subjects with both had a 2.7-fold increased risk. Diabetes and depression are seemingly associated with unhealthy behaviors like smoking, poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle.
The study is published in the January issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.