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Diabetes Linked to Depression and Impulse Control Disorders Including Binge-Eating and Bulimia

Diabetes Blood Sugar TestingDepression and impulse control disorders such as eating disorders like binge-eating and bulimia are risk factors for diabetes, suggests a new study led by Dr, Peter de Jonge — Interdisciplinary Center for Psychopathology and Emotion Regulation, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Netherlands — as published in Diabetologia, the journal of The European Association for the Study of Diabetes.

Previous studies have investigated the link between diabetes and depression. The majority of these studies have been conducted in the United States and Europe. However, diabetes and depression vary in prevalence around the world. Additionally, depression often co-occurs with several other mental health disorders such as anxiety disorders, alcohol abuse, and eating disorders.

The present study uses data from the World Mental Health Surveys to investigate the associations between a wide range of mental disorders (as described in the DSM-IV) and diabetes. The data came from 19 countries — Colombia, Mexico, Peru, USA, Shenzhen (China), Japan, New Zealand, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Iraq, the UK (Northern Ireland), and Poland — and included more than 50,000 participants and 2,580 cases of adult-onset diabetes.

Looking at the large international sample, the researchers investigated the association between first onset of mood, anxiety, impulse control, and substance use disorders with diabetes diagnosis.

After adjusting for compounding factors, depression, intermittent explosive disorder, binge eating disorder, and bulimia nervosa independently increased the risk of diabetes diagnosis. Depression increased the risk by 30 percent, intermittent explosive disorder by 60 percent, binge eating disorder by 2.6 times, and bulimia nervosa by 2.1 times.

“While the estimates of prevalence for these mental health disorders vary at a population level, effective interventions to prevent these conditions might ultimately prevent substantial numbers of diabetes diagnoses,” suggest the authors of the study. “Our findings thus suggest that the focus on depression in the context of diabetes prediction is warranted, but this focus may be extended to impulse control disorders.”

More research on the link between diabetes and depression and impulse control disorders such as eating disorders like binge-eating and bulimia is still necessary. However, the results of the present study indicate that screening individuals with depression, intermittent explosive disorder, binge eating disorder, and bulimia is an important step in the battle against diabetes.

References

Impulse control difficulties linked to diabetes: http://psychcentral.com/news/2014/02/03/impulse-control-difficulties-linked-to-diabetes/65390.html
Independent association between diabetes and depression and impulse control disorders including binge-eating and bulimia: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/272004.php

Image Credits

Diabetes Blood Sugar Testing: http://www.freeimages.com/photo/550152

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