All people with diabetes know it: it is not easy to live peacefully with the constraints of their chronic disease, especially since many complications can occur, such as diabetic retinopathy, heart failure or skin abscesses.
As if that weren’t enough, researchers at the University of Melbourne, Australia, have just discovered that diabetes also comes with lesser-known complications, which are causing more and more hospitalizations among their diabetic patients: certain infections less frequently associated with diabetes (pneumonia and sepsis) but also severe iron deficiency (iron deficiency anemia) or even mental disorders, such as depression.
Depression, an emerging complication
Although traditional complications remain a significant burden for people with type 2 diabetes, these new complications especially depression, are becoming the leading causes of hospital admissions for diabetic patients. Thus, men and women who are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes before the age of 40 are much more likely to suffer from depression than those who develop the disease later in life, whether or not they have diabetes. other underlying diseases.
The study analyzed nationally representative electronic medical records of nearly 1.4 million UK and US patients with type 2 diabetes over 11 years, making it the first study to examine trends in of the population of the prevalence of depression at the time of diagnosis of diabetes. Scientists have found that the number of traditional complications, such as heart attacks, strokes or amputations, have decreased significantly over the past 20 years due to better preventive care. On the other hand, new complications such as anemia and mental disorders have emerged in people with diabetes.
Examining the emerging diseases of diabetes allows scientists to improve their understanding of the burden of serious disease. “Our findings clearly highlight the mental health implications of developing type 2 diabetes at a young age and the importance of efforts to prevent diabetes early in life,” says lead author Professor Sanjoy. Paul from the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Source : Individuals with young onset type 2 diabetes at substantially higher risk of depressionDiabetology, September 2022
