Comorbidity of Depression and Diabetes: Questions Recently Answered and Raised

Abstract

This paper will present information about a multicentric international collaborative study, which explored the frequency of depressive disorders in people with diabetes Type 2. The study was carried out in 14 countries–5 in Asia (Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan and Thailand), two in Africa (Kenya and Uganda), two in Latin America (Argentina and Mexico) and five in Europe (Germany, Poland, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine). The study found that depressive disorders and sub threshold depression are frequent in people with diabetes: one tenth of all the nearly 3000 patients examined had major depression and another 15% sub threshold depressive disorders. Depression was only rarely recognized by the physicians dealing with diabetes and those few who were recognized were not provided treatment of their depressive disorders. The presentation will draw attention to the need to improve skills of diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders of physicians who are not psychiatrists.

Disclosure of interest

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.