Scientists looked at the link between diabetes and depression and have found that diabetes contributes to depression and vice versa.

The study, published yesterday in the “Journal of the American Medical Association,” indicated that people who are treated for type 2 diabetes had a 52% higher risk of developing symptoms of depression. Researcher Sherita Hill Golden, MD, of Johns Hopkins University, and colleagues tracked an ethnically diverse group of about 5,000 men and women aged 45 to 84 for about three years. They were selected in 2000-2002 and followed until 2004-2005. They looked at the risk of developing type two diabetes in a number of adults who did and didn’t have depressive symptoms about three years prior, but also in adults without depressive symptoms.   

Scientists found that people with symptoms of depression were 42 percent more likely to develop diabetes by the end of the study than those without such symptoms. The findings also suggest a link between depressive symptoms, the development of diabetes and other factors, such as obesity, lack of physical activity and smoking.

“When we looked at the people in our study who had elevated symptoms of depression, they were more likely to eat more calories, they exercised less, and they were more likely to be current smokers. And as a consequence, they were also more obese,” Dr. Sherita Hill Golden of John Hopkins University School said in a telephone interview with Reuters. They also found that the psychological stress associated with diabetes management may lead to elevated depressive symptoms. Depression also pushes up the levels of stress hormones.

To conclude, people with symptoms of depression are more likely to develop diabetes than those without such symptoms. The more serious the symptoms, the higher the risk of diabetes, the study indicated.