[Clinical study of depression accompanying diabetes mellitus]

The appropriate management of chronic diseases is important to ensure a high quality of life. In particular, depression has been reported to occasionally accompany diabetes mellitus. Here, we investigated depression onset in individuals with diabetes mellitus. Subjects were outpatients with a clinical diagnosis of depression in combination with diabetes mellitus between August 1, 1998 and September 30, 1998 of the psychiatry clinic of Jichi Medical School. Of 34 individuals (20 males, 14 females) included in the preliminary investigation, 22 were interviewed. We investigated the social demographic background, the treatment, family history of depression and diabetes mellitus, and measured the Hamilton's Rating Scale for Depression and the value of HbA1c. The overall male/female ratio was 13/9, indicating that this pattern of disease onset was more common in males than in females. The Hamilton's Rating Scale for Depression correlated closely with the percentage of patients being treated with insulin. Furthermore, the timing of the diagnosis of these two diseases correlated closely with each other. The ratio of males to females suggested that the different gender roles and lifestyles and the biological bases of these differences may play roles in the onset of depression among diabetic patients. Moreover, as more patients with insulin dependence developed depression than patients without insulin, insulin was implicated in the onset of depression. Furthermore, as the onset of the two diseases correlated closely with one another, the onset of one disease may have hastened the onset of the other.