Abstract
Background: International clinical practice guidelines highlight the importance of improving the psychological and mental health care of patients with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Psychological interventions can promote adherence to the demands of diabetes self-care, promoting high quality of life and wellbeing. Methods: A systematic review was carried out to determine whether psychological treatments with a specific focus on emotional management have an impact on glycemic control and variables related to psychological adjustment. Comprehensive literature searches of PubMed Medline, Psycinfo, Cochrane Database, Web of Science, and Open Grey Repository databases were conducted, from inception to November 2019 and were last updated in December 2020. Finally, eight articles met inclusion criteria. Results: Results showed that the management of emotions was effective in improving the psychological adjustment of patients with T1DM when carried out by psychologists. However, the evidence regarding the improvement of glycemic control was not entirely clear. When comparing adolescent and adult populations, findings yielded slightly better results in adolescents. Conclusions: More rigorous studies are needed to establish what emotional interventions might increase glycemic control in this population.
Highlights
Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is a leading chronic disease associated with significant mortality and economic cost worldwide
Of the 79 articles selected for full-text reviewing, 72 were excluded for the following main reasons: 24 because the provider was not a psychology professional; 21 because they were either protocol studies or were not an RCT or a prospective cohort study; did not fulfil the criteria of at least months of T1D diagnosis; 6 did not include a psychological treatment, did not have an emotional component, or did not have a control group; 3 included a population with other psychological diagnoses; and 7 were not possible to find
The studies included in this review suggested that psychological interventions focused on emotional components were more effective than control conditions in improving psychological adjustment in adolescents and adults with T1DM
Summary
Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is a leading chronic disease associated with significant mortality and economic cost worldwide. Uncontrolled T1DM is associated with physiological complications like hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, and ketoacidosis. These complications, if recurrent, can lead to serious medical problems including neurological damage, kidney disease, vision loss, and vascular damage, as well as reduced quality of life [5]. International clinical practice guidelines highlight the importance of improving the psychological and mental health care of patients with Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Methods: A systematic review was carried out to determine whether psychological treatments with a specific focus on emotional management have an impact on glycemic control and variables related to psychological adjustment. Results: Results showed that the management of emotions was effective in improving the psychological adjustment of patients with T1DM when carried out by psychologists. Conclusions: More rigorous studies are needed to establish what emotional interventions might increase glycemic control in this population
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