Diabetes und depressive Störungen

Abstract

AbstractDepressive disorders are highly prevalent in patients with diabetes. While depressive disorders themselves require therapy, they also contribute negatively to diabetes-related medical, social and psychological outcomes, and therefore need to be addressed. Disease burden is very high for both diabetes and depression, even more so in case of comorbidity. Comorbid depressive symptoms in patients with diabetes are associated with a reduced quality of life and adherence to treatment regimes, impaired coping abilities, as well as increased morbidity and mortality rates, diabetes-related distress, and economic burden.The interactions between diabetes and depression are bidirectional. Both diseases appear to have a variety of shared bio-psychosocial, as well as biological risk factors. Recent research implies that the interaction between diabetes and depression cannot be understood as a simple cause-effect relationship but might rather be explained by being part of a disturbed homeostasis of biological and psychological circuits.Regular depression screenings should be applied to identify depressive symptoms in patients with diabetes. To verify positive screening results, treating physicians have a key role in targeting depression by actively asking patients for depressive symptoms within the last 14 days. If symptoms are present, further diagnostics, and the exploration of psychosocial problems are necessary. In case of a depressive disorder, varieties of effective antidepressant treatments (psychotherapy, psychopharmacological medications) are available. Physical activation and diabetes education programs can be offered additionally. The current paper offers insights on epidemiology, symptoms, interactions, diagnostics, treatments as well as the relationship between physician and patient.