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Diabetes doesn't cause depression

Although people with diabetes have a higher risk of being diagnosed with depression than other people, recent research has found that much of that increase can be accounted for by their more frequent contacts with the medical system.

Diabetes doesnt cause depression

Although people with diabetes have a higher risk of being diagnosed with depression than other people, recent research has found that much of that increase can be accounted for by their more frequent contacts with the medical system, rather than diabetes itself.

This is consistent with the hypothesis that having a diagnosed chronic condition increases the frequency of a depression diagnosis. Patients with diabetes are no more affected by this susceptibility than patients with other chronic conditions who have frequent outpatient visits.

Previous studies have found a higher likelihood of being depressed among diabetic individuals while other studies have had mixed results. An analysis of 42 studies found that people with diabetes were twice as likely to have depression than non-diabetics. But few studies on the issue have accounted for the number of primary care visits that patients made, which could influence both whether or not a person had diabetes and whether they were diagnosed with and treated for depression.

To investigate, researchers looked at records from a large medical group that treated about 225,000 American patients between 1997 and 2003. They compared 2,932 people who received a diagnosis of diabetes during that time and 14,144 diagnosed with diabetes before 1997 to two different control groups. The first was matched by age and sex, while the second group was matched by age, sex and number of primary care visits.

It was found that for every group of patients, the likelihood of being newly diagnosed with depression fell as the number of times they visited the doctor increased. Among patients who already had diabetes, those who had few physician visits during the study period were 46% more likely to be newly diagnosed with depression during the course of the study. But for the diabetic patients who had more than 10 physician visits during the study period, the risk of a new depression diagnosis was similar to that of non-diabetic individuals who visited their physicians equally often.

The reason why people - diabetic or not - who visit the doctor less often are more likely to be depressed isn't clear. The data indicates that primary care clinicians are good at recognising depression after only a few visits. Other explanations are possible, however; perhaps physicians who do not recognise depression early are not likely to diagnose it later. Patients with diabetes do not have a higher risk of being diagnosed with depression as compared to non-diabetics if the number of out patient visits are taken into account.
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