relationship between eating disorder and depression in patients with diabetes-type II

ABSTRACT

Diabetes mellitus-type II is a common chronic illness that limits the patients' lives in many ways. Several studies have shown the high prevalence of eating and depressive disorders in diabetic patients. Regarding to the frequency and probable adverse effects of associated psychiatric disorders on the course and prognosis of the chronic diseases such as diabetes, the present study was designed to investigate the relationship between eating disorders and depression in subjects with Diabetes-type II. Analytic descriptive. This research has been done in Mashad city-Khorasan province-Iran, in 2006. Our subjects were 200 patients with Diabetes-type II between the ages 45-65 years old [mean +/- SD was 52.2+5.8] who were randomly selected from the referred patients to "Khorassan Research Center of Diabetes ". 15% of subjects had eating disorder [based on BES] while remaining 85% were without eating disorder. "Beck Depression Inventory" [BDI] and "Binge Eating Scale" [BES] were performed for the selected subjects. In addition to the assessment of prevalence of eating and depressive disorders we also compared the prevalence of depression in the patients with and without eating disorder. The prevalence of depression [Beck score equal or more than 9] in overall sample was 58% in subjects with eating disorder it was significantly higher [p<.05] than others [70% versus 55.88%]. In the present study, the prevalence of eating disorder and depression were higher in patients with Diabetes Mellitus than general population. Because of the relationship between eating disorder and Diabetes-type II, physicians who treat diabetic patients should be careful about these psychiatric symptoms. The relationship between depression and eating disorder is also notable and shows the importance of considering it in the overall management of these patients