Abstract
Background:Considerable studies directly connect the complications in diabetic patients, and especially peripheral neuropathy, with the emergence of depression. Neuropathetic pain may deteriorate the general health status of the diabetic patient and glycaemic regulation.Purpose:The purpose of this study was to investigate the appearance and degree of diabetic peripheral neuropathy and its correlation with depression, with other parameters of the disease and also duration.Methods:57 diabetic patients participated with diagnosed diabetic peripheral neuropathy (male n=27, female n= 30, mean of age 72.7±6.35 years). The first part of Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument and the Zung Depression Rating Scale were used as tools for our study. Data was analysed with the SPSS 18.0 statistic program.Results:57.9% of the patients were overweight, 35.1% were obese and only 7% were within normal weight range. The BMI findings between the two genders indicate that male participants are more often obese than females. Women surpassed men in the category of overweight patients (p<0.05). The score based on MNSI was high and between 3 to 12 (mean average of 8.19±2.60 with 8 as intermediate rate). Almost 60% of patients had severe neuropathy, only 2 were found with mild symptoms and the rest had moderate neuropathtic symptoms, based on the score summary from the questionnaire. Investigating in detail the relation of diabetic neuropathy and depression, it derives that a high degree of diabetic neuropathy is related with high score of depression [F(3.160)=9.821, p=0.001]. Moderate and severe neuropathy was found with almost the same levels of depression.Conclusions:The correlation between diabetic neuropathy and depression is confirmed, while a very high depression rate was found in patients with severe neuropathy. The issue needs further study by using common instruments to obtain comparative results from the scientific community.
Highlights
Diabetic neuropathy is an umbrella term that covers several clinical syndromes, which affect separate territories of the nervous system, solely or combined together, and is the most problematic of all diabetes complications and leads analogically to larger morbidity and mortality (Vinik et al, 2000; Vileikyte et al, 2005)
The correlation between diabetic neuropathy and depression is confirmed, while a very high depression rate was found in patients with severe neuropathy
Among the patients who visit an outpatient diabetes clinic, 25% complain about symptoms, 50% are found with neuropathy based on the Achilles tendon reflex or pallesthesia control, while almost 90% of them have positive results on more specialised tests (Vinik et al, 2000; Kanjii et al, 2010)
Summary
Diabetic neuropathy is an umbrella term that covers several clinical syndromes, which affect separate territories of the nervous system, solely or combined together, and is the most problematic of all diabetes complications and leads analogically to larger morbidity and mortality (Vinik et al, 2000; Vileikyte et al, 2005). It is estimated to affect 24% of diabetic patients (Schmader, 2000; Herman et al, 2012). This type of neuropathy is the most frequent in developed countries and increases hospital admissions more than all diabetes complications together (Polikandrioti & Kalogianni, 2009; Vileikyte et al, 2009). In Europe, the results show that 35% of diabetic patients have neuropathy based on symptoms and clinical findings (Wetering et al, 2010; Rekleiti et al, 2012). Considerable studies directly connect the complications in diabetic patients, and especially peripheral neuropathy, with the emergence of depression. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the appearance and degree of diabetic peripheral neuropathy and its correlation with depression, with other parameters of the disease and duration
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