ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: To find the prevalence of depression and the level of anxiety in a group of patients with diabetes mellitus type II (DM); to compare the presence of psychiatric pathology with different variables and contrast the diabetic group's results with those of a group of non-diabetic patients. DESIGN: A comparative crossover study. SETTING: The Ronda Prim Health Centre, Mataró. PATIENTS AND OTHER PARTICIPANTS: The diabetics controlled of 4 of the 6 Basic Care Units (BCU) of our Centre. The comparison group consisted of 85 patients who attended the Centre of their own accord, matched for gender, age and BCU. The two groups did not differ as to socio-economic level, marital status and job. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Two self-applicable tests were given to all the patients: the Stai test to measure anxiety and the Beck one to determine depression. 27% of the diabetic patients had depression, as against 47% of those in the comparison group (p = 0.001). For the diabetic group, depression and anxiety level was found to have no relationship with the length of the DM's development, its treatment and chronic complications, the performance of self-analysis techniques and glycaemic control. CONCLUSIONS: The group of diabetics studied displayed a prevalence of psychiatric pathology very much lower than the control group. No statistically significant relationship was found between depression and anxiety levels, and different variables associated with DM.
