Psychiatric illness, emotional distress, glycemic control and chronic complications in type 1 diabetes subjects.

OBJECTIVE

To assess the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) and to compare patients with and without psychiatric disorder.

METHODS

We made a cross-sectional study including patients with T1D assisted in the outpatient clinics of the Brazilian National Health System. To assess depression and anxiety, we used the PHQ-9 questionnaire and the DSM-5th edition criteria, respectively. B-PAID evaluated the level of emotional distress associated with diabetes; EAT-26, eating disorders; SCI-R, adherence to the proposed clinical treatment.

RESULTS

We analyzed 166 patients aged 33 (22-45.2) years, 53.6% female. The prevalence of depression and anxiety was 20.5% and 40.4%, respectively. HbA1c was worse in the depressed (9.0% vs. 8.4%, p = 0.008), in the anxious ones (9.0% vs. 8.3%, p = 0.012) and in the patients with high levels of B-PAID (8.8 % vs. 8.3 %, p = 0.009). There was no difference in the prevalence of complications related to diabetes.

CONCLUSION

The prevalence of psychiatric disorders and emotional distress related to diabetes was high in our population of T1D patients, and depression and high levels of B-PAID were associated with the worse glycemic control.