Study links diabetes complications to mental health issues (Image credit: iStock)
A recent study has revealed a bidirectional relationship between diabetes complications, such as heart attacks and strokes, and Mental health conditions, including anxiety and depressionThe study found that people with diabetes-related complications are at a higher risk of developing mental health problems, and those with mental health disorders are more likely to experience diabetes-related complications. The researchers suggest that this bidirectional link may not be entirely direct, as both diabetes complications and mental health conditions share common risk factors such as obesity and poor blood sugar control, which increase the likelihood of developing both types of disorders.
Maya Watanabe, a biostatistician at Harvard School of Public Health and senior author of the study, explained: “Most likely a combination of direct and indirect effects, along with shared risk factors, are driving the association we are seeing.” She emphasized that diabetes care providers could reduce the risk of multiple complications by addressing these shared risk factors.
The study, published in the journal Diabetes Care, analyzed insurance claims data from more than 500,000 people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes and more than 350,000 people without diabetes, from 2001 to 2018. The findings indicated that people with a chronic complication of diabetes had a two- to three-fold increased risk of developing a mental health condition. However, those with mental health disorders were up to 2.5 times more likely to experience sustained complications of diabetes.
“We found a consistent bidirectional association between chronic diabetes complications and lifetime mental health disorders, highlighting the significant relationship between these conditions,” the study authors said. They also suggested that preventing and treating one condition could potentially reduce the risk of developing the other.
The study found age-related differences in the prevalence of these conditions. Among people under 60, those with type 1 diabetes were more likely to suffer from chronic complications of diabetes, while those with type 2 diabetes were more likely to suffer from mental health disorders.
Researchers have proposed several reasons for this bidirectional relationship. One possibility is that having a diabetes complication directly increases the risk of developing a mental illness. For example, a stroke can have serious effects on the brain, which can directly lead to depression. Having a mental illness while managing diabetes can negatively affect self-care behaviors, such as maintaining good blood sugar control or adhering to medication regimens, increasing the risk of diabetes complications.
Lead author Brian Callaghan, a professor of neurology at the University of Michigan, explained: “For example, a stroke causes detrimental effects on the brain, which can lead directly to depression. And having both a mental illness and diabetes can affect a person’s self-management of the disease (such as poor blood sugar control or not taking medications), which in turn can increase the risk of diabetes complications.”
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