Major Finding: A diagnosis of type 1 or 2 diabetes appears to significantly increase the risk of incident depression, especially in younger men.
Data Source: An analysis of a population database containing more than 75,000 people who developed diabetes.
Disclosures: The study was sponsored by the Steno Diabetes Center, which is an independent academic institution owned by Novo Nordisk A/S and the Novo Nordisk Foundation. Dr. Rasmussen is an employee of the center.
ORLANDO — Patients with newly diagnosed diabetes also might be at an increased risk of depression, a large Danish registry study has determined.
Men seemed particularly at risk, Dr. Jeppe Nørgaard Rasmussen said. “Men with diabetes were 50% more likely than men without diabetes to develop incident depression,” said Dr. Rasmussen of the Steno Diabetes Center in Gentofte, Denmark, and the University of Copenhagen.
The relative risk for women, although lower, was still significantly higher than the risk of depression among women without diabetes (relative risk, 1.25).
Dr. Rasmussen analyzed a national Danish health care registry that included information on all citizens of Denmark aged 30–100 years and free from diabetes and depression at baseline (3.8 million). The study period covered 2000–2006.
The primary outcome was development of depression (defined as at least one health care claim for prescription antidepressant medication, or a first hospitalization for depression).
Of the 3.8 million person cohort, 75,101 developed diabetes, with 1,955 classified as type 1 and 73,146 as type 2. Incident depression developed in 44,441 who were admitted to the hospital for depression and in 567,358 who had antidepressant medication claims.
A diagnosis of type 2 diabetes was associated with a significantly increased risk of depression in both men and women, particularly in those aged 30–39 years.
After adjustment for age, socioeconomic status, and education, the relative risk of hospital admission for depression for men with diabetes was 1.73; for women, it was 1.21.
The relative risk for antidepressant medication for men with diabetes was 1.46; for women, it was 1.20.
The risk was similarly increased in patients of both sexes aged 40–49 years.
For men, the risk of hospital admission was 1.43 and for antidepressant drugs, 1.36.
For women, the relative risk for admission was 1.53 and for medications, 1.36. The risk decreased with increasing age.
In an age/sex analysis, the diagnosis of type 1 diabetes for men aged 30–39 years resulted in a relative risk of 2.76 for hospital admission for depression and 1.57 for antidepressant medication. For women of the same age, the risk for admission was 1.57 and for medication, 1.69. The risks became equaled for patients aged 40–49 years.
For men, the risk of hospital admission was 2.98 and for antidepressant drugs, 2.23. For women the same age, the relative risk for admission was 3.86 and for medications, 1.90.
Because the two disorders seem to have a bidirectional association, it's difficult to draw any conclusions about the causal nature of their relationship, Dr. Rasmussen said.
The diabetes-depression link was significant in men and women, particularly those aged 30–39 years.
Source DR. RASMUSSEN