An Australian expert has called for type 2 diabetes screening for all patients presenting with depression or anxiety, as they are far more likely to develop the disease than the general population.
Patients with current depressive and/or anxiety disorders had a 10.4-fold increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes over the following two years, data from a Dutch cohort of around 2,500 patients matched to controls showed.
People with depressive and/or anxiety disorders in remission had a sixfold greater risk of diabetes compared with those without psychopathology.
Lifestyle risk factors accounted for some but not all of the increased risk for diabetes, the researchers said. Although antidepressant medication was not specifically controlled for, it was not considered a factor as the newer generation SSRIs prescribed did not have a negative cardiometabolic profile, co-author Evan Atlantis told Endocrinology Update.
A Senior Research Fellow at the University of Western Sydney and a leading expert in mental health, biological and behavioural risk factors for diabetes, Dr Atlantis said the findings demonstrated the need for all patients presenting with depression or anxiety to be screened for diabetes because evidence showed they are at increased risk.
“It is definitely not standard practice at the moment and in fact it is rarely done,” Dr Atlantis said.
Not only should depressed and anxious patients be screened for diabetes but the reverse should happen as well, he said.
“My colleagues and I have been making the case that diabetes patients should be screened for depression and anxiety. In the Australian guidelines there is mention of screening for depression in newly diagnosed diabetes patients but there has been no uniform, consistent call for it,” he said.
Journal of Affective Disorders, 2012; online
An Australian expert has called for type 2 diabetes screening for all patients presenting with depression or anxiety, as they are far more likely to develop the disease than the general population.
Patients with current depressive and/or anxiety disorders had a 10.4-fold increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes over the following two years, data from a Dutch cohort of around 2,500 patients matched to controls showed.
People with depressive and/or anxiety disorders in remission had a sixfold greater risk of diabetes compared with those without psychopathology.
Lifestyle risk factors accounted for some but not all of the increased risk for diabetes, the researchers said. Although antidepressant medication was not specifically controlled for, it was not considered a factor as the newer...