Clinical characteristics of depressed patients with comorbid diabetes mellitus

Both diabetes and depression are highly prevalent. Patients with diabetes experience higher rates of depression compared to the general population. When present, depression is associated with an increase in the morbidity and mortality of diabetes, suggesting the importance of treatment in this population. The objective of the present study was to characterize depressive characteristics in depressed patients with and without comorbid diabetes. Seventeen patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes were drawn from outpatient clinical trials. Depressed patients without diabetes were identified from the same studies. Unpaired t-tests and multiple chi-square analyses were used to compare demographic and clinical characteristics between the samples. Diabetic patients in our sample were more depressed and reported lower levels of somatic well-being and contentment compared to non-diabetic patients. The samples did not differ significantly along other dimensions of depression, including course of illness, response to previous treatments and comorbid conditions. These findings suggest that depressed diabetic patients are more similar than not to non-diabetic depressed patients, although important differences exist.