A study has discovered a bidirectional relationship between diabetes-related complications, such as heart attacks and strokes, and mental health issues, including anxiety and depression. The presence of any condition from the first group heightened the risk of developing one from the second group, and vice versa. Researchers noted that this link might also be "less direct," as both diabetes complications and mental health conditions share common risk factors, like obesity and challenges in managing blood sugar levels, which increase the likelihood of both types of disorders.
"Most likely, a combination of direct and indirect effects and shared risk factors drive the association we are seeing," Maya Watanabe, a biostatistician at the Harvard University's School of Public Health, US, and first author of the study published in the journal Diabetes Care, said.
"Diabetes care providers may be able to simultaneously prevent the risk of multiple complications by providing interventions to treat these shared risk factors," Watanabe said.
The researchers analysed insurance claims from 2001 to 2018, involving data from over 500,000 individuals with type 1 or type 2 diabetes and more than 350,000 individuals without diabetes.
The researchers discovered that individuals with chronic diabetes complications had a two to three times greater risk of developing a mental health condition. Conversely, those with mental health disorders were up to 2.5 times more likely to suffer from persistent diabetes complications.
"We found a consistent bidirectional association between chronic diabetes complications and mental health disorders across the life span, highlighting the important relationship between (both sets of conditions). Prevention and treatment of either comorbidity may help reduce the risk of developing the other," the authors wrote.
Further, "in those (of) age less than 60 years, individuals with type 1 diabetes were more likely to have chronic diabetes complications, whereas individuals with type 2 diabetes were more likely to have mental health disorders," they wrote.
The researchers suggested that one possible explanation for this bi-directional relationship is that having a diabetes complication or a mental health condition could directly influence the development of the other disorder.
"For instance, a stroke causes detrimental effects on the brain, which may directly lead to depression," senior author Brian Callaghan, a professor of neurology at the University of Michigan, US, said.
"And having a mental health condition and diabetes may affect a person's self-management of their condition -- like poor glycemic control or not taking medications -- which, in turn, may increase their risk of diabetes complications," Callaghan said.
(with PTI inputs)
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