Prof. Dr. Norman Sartorius, President of the AIMHP, Washington University:

“This programme is of great importance, because the numbers of people who suffer from both diabetes and depression is vast. The results of this project might help to improve their health care, which in most - even highly developed - parts of the world is not satisfactory in either coverage or quality.”

www.diabetesanddepression.org

  

Diabetes and Depression: a toxic combination

A quarter of all diabetics also suffer from depression. In the Netherlands alone this accounts for an estimated 150,000 people. It is high time for a combined treatment to be developed for this condition.

  

Diabetes is strengthening its grip throughout the world. Not only in the US and Europe, but in Asia and the Middle East too, diabetes is assuming epidemic proportions. This is a worrying development. Together, diabetes and depression form a toxic combination than can lead to a downward spiral of mutually reinforcing symptoms.read more >>

For people suffering from depression, it is more difficult to maintain a lifestyle that prevents an exacerbation of diabetes. Equally, diabetics are already battling such major limitations in their lives, that they incur a greater risk of depression.

The global project ‘Global Diabetes and Depression Dialogue’ of the Association for the Improvement of Mental Health Programmes (AIMHP) is currently investigating what these two disorders have in common and how they interact with each other. The aim of the project is to collate the existing knowledge on the (combination) of both disorders, in order to improve prevention and treatment. The role of the Trimbos Institute is to conduct research on the best treatments for diabetes/depression.

The current level of knowledge leads us to assume that combined treatment has the greatest effect. In order to prevent one of the disorders from leading to a double set of symptoms, the standard treatment involves counselling, including advice about the disorders and on the correct lifestyle.

For cases of double diagnosis, a more serious approach is needed. The treatment of diabetes then needs to be supplemented with psychotherapy and anti-depressants which do not affect blood sugar levels. Within the so-called collaborative-care model all these interventions are fine-tuned to each other. There is also intensive aftercare, to ascertain whether the interventions have had the desired effect.

‘Lifestyle disease in poor population groups’

According to psychiatrist Christina van der Feltz, programme head of Diagnostics and Treatment and Chairperson of the AIMPH Working Group on Treatment, diabetes appears at face value to be a typically western illness that is directly linked to a culture of overeating and a high fat diet. Paradoxically, however, this illness chiefly affects poorer groups, as a consequence of their lifestyle. They have an unhealthy diet and take insufficient exercise, and have such difficulty in keeping their heads above water, that a healthy lifestyle is not really an option for them.