Traumatic experiences and type 2 diabetes mellitus

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a complex and demanding chronic condition resulting from the body's inability to adequately produce and or effectively utilize insulin. A wide variety of lifestyle factors are of great importance to the development of T2DM, such as sedentary lifestyle, obesity, physical inactivity, smoking and alcohol consumption. An emerging body of literature suggests that stress and traumatic experiences have a role in the aetiology of T2DM.

We recruited a sample of 52 patients with a diagnosis of T2DM and a control group of 48 subjects. Using the Traumatic Experience Checklist (TEC), the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse Questionnaire (CECA-Q), and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC 25), we investigated the presence of history of traumatic experiences and of childhood experience of neglect and abuse.

We found that patients with a diagnosis of T2DM have a higher number of traumatic experiences in their personal history, when compared to the control group.

Traumatic experiences or sustained stress exposure may contribute to the onset of T2DM. Neuro-inflammatory and psychoanalytic factors will be discussed to explain such association.

We conclude that factors that determine high levels of resiliency can have a protective effect against the development of T2DM while stress and the consequent inflammation can contribute to the development of depression and T2DM. These biological features are analyzed in the psychoanalytical context of theories from Freud, Mahler, and Kohut.