Psychological adjustment and neuropsychological performance in diabetic patients

The Faschingbauer Abbreviated MMPI (FAM) was utilized to compare diabetic (N = 39) with non-diabetic chronic illness patients (N = 20) and healthy controls (N = 24). The healthy controls were significantly different from the diabetic and chronic illnesses groups, but the latter two groups were not significantly differentiated. Similarly, in comparison with the healthy groups, both the chronic illnesses group and the diabetic group had significant elevations on the first three clinical subscales of the FAM: Hypochondriasis, Depression, and Hysteria. On the basis of the FAM results, the diabetic patients were divided into a "well" adjusted and a "poorly" adjusted group, and comparisons were made on a variety of neuropsychological measures, including the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Wechsler Memory Scale, and Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery. Results demonstrated negligible effect of poor adjustment on neuropsychological performance.