Depression and Anxiety among Adult Patients with Type II Diabetes Mellitus- A Descriptive Study in Urban North Karnataka

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) and its complications are the leading cardinal threats to public health. They are leading to a potential epidemic in India with more than 69 million diabetic individuals currently diagnosed with the disease. Depression is a common psychiatric syndrome leading to an increase in co-morbidities affecting over 300 million people worldwide. Anxiety is another form of psychiatric disorder chronically affecting the day-to-day life of over 264 million people worldwide. Very few studies have been conducted that report the prevalence of anxiety and depression among diabetic individuals in India. Aim: To assess Type II DM patients for psychological problems like depression and anxiety. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study which was conducted at Urban Health Centre (UHC) for a period of two months. One hundred and twenty six individual diagnosed with Type II DM for a year were recruited as study participants (18-60 years of age). All the study participants were interviewed personally by the investigator at the UHC or their residence and the purpose of the study was explained to the participants in detail before asking them to participate. The ‘Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale’ (HADS) was used to assess the levels of anxiety, depression and the factors associated with it by standard scoring system. Results: Type II DM patients had 30.2% of depression and 31.8% had anxiety; depression was prevalent in illiterate (p=0.006), lower socio-economic class (p=0.034), sleep-deprived (p<0.001) and in those complaining of reduced appetite (p=0.001). Conclusion: Among the sleep deprived and reduced appetite cases, anxiety levels were significantly high indicating several factors playing a role in development of psychological problems.

Keywords

• co-morbidities
• psychiatric disorders
• hospital anxiety depression scale