The relationship between depression and microvasculer complications in type 2 diabetes mellitus

Introduction: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a disease, which can be presented with complications and causes morbidity and mortality with incidence increasing all over the world. Depression incidence is increased in Type 2 DM. When DM and depression are detected together, compliance to the disease is increased as well as mortality. Herein, we aimed to evaluate the presence of depression in diabetic patients and the relationship between depression and demographic data, glycemic control and complications. Materials and Method: 86 patients with a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes for 2 years and older are enrolled in the study. Demographic characteristics of the patients with their medical history, physical examination findings, comorbidities, received therapies, glycemic control and laboratory parameters, microvascular complications were recorded. They were divided into 3 groups according to their beck depression inventory (BDI) scores and 2 groups according to their HbA1c levels. All statistical analyzes were performed on PASW 18 and p <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: In the group with high HbA1c levels, the BDI scores were found significantly high (p = 0.004). Significant relationship was found between HbA1c and BDI when age, body-mass index and diabetes duration are constant (r = 0.396, p <0.001). Significant correlation between BDI scores and age, female gender, BMI, duration of diabetes, comorbidities, neuropathy, retinopathy and nephropathy was determined (p values as 0,001; 0,023; 0,006; <0.001; 0.003, <0.001, <0.001, <0.001 ). There was no significant relationship between BDI scores and other variables. Regression analysis found significant relationship between BDI scores and neuropathy, retinopathy and female gender. (p values; 0.023; 0.002; 0.026 and Odds Ratio; 5.865; 18.302; 3.920, respectively). Discussion: In our study, depression in diabetics was found to be associated with poor glycemic control, high HbA1c levels, female gender, elderly, presence of concomitant disease, neuropathy, nephropathy and retinopathy. 3.92-fold increase in the presence of female sex, 5.865-fold increase in the presence of neuropathy and 18.302-fold increase in the presence of retinopathy was observed.