The Need For Diagnosis

Depression and Diabetes

Statistics
How do You Know You Are Depressed?
The Need for Diagnosis
Treatment
Depression in Parents of Children With Diabetes
GE Insulin, Hypoglycaemia and Depression
Useful Research – Depression and Diabetes

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The Need For Diagnosis

Recent estimates suggest that up to three quarters of cases of depression in people with diabetes may go undiagnosed. This may be because of poor detection rates but it could also be that some people with diabetes don’t report their symptoms of depression because they see them as ‘just part of having diabetes’.

Screening for depression [not specifically for people with diabetes] has been recommended by national and international bodies and now in the UK, the Dept of Health recommends that all GPs use two simple questions to screen for symptoms of depression:

• During the last month, have you been bothered by feeling down, depressed or hopeless?
• During the last month, have you often been bothered by having little interest or pleasure in doing things?

If people answer ‘yes’ to either of these questions, they are given a questionnaire to answer to measure the extent and nature of the symptoms. It is important that similar methods are used in diabetes hospital clinics where many people with Type 1 diabetes receive their treatment.