The psychological condition of a cohort of Nigerian diabetic subjects.

The emotional condition and cognitive function of 37 insulin requiring (IDD) and 46 non-insulin requiring (NIDD) diabetics (in stable conditions) were compared, using the Hospital Anxiety and Depressive Scale (HAD) and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). About 5% of IDD and 4% of NIDD had threshold score for clinical anxiety; while 37.8% of IDD and 15.2% of NIDD had depression. The prevalence rate of depression for the entire cohort was 25.3%, while the rate for anxiety was 4.8%. Only the illiterates among IDD had up to threshold score for depression. The most common reported symptoms were, the feelings of not being able to enjoy things as usual, and not looking forward with enjoyment to things. Cognitive function was predominantly normal, not being significantly associated with HAD scale scores, age, duration of illness and level of education. Compared with previous reports in the same hospital, diabetics experienced significantly less depressive symptoms than cancer patients. The findings are similar to reports from developed countries in showing that IDD subjects are more emotionally disturbed than NIDD subjects; and that depression is a commonly feature of chronic debilitating illness. Clinicians need to be sensitive to the emotional condition of their patients, because depression impairs the ability to comply with treatment and therefore mars prognosis.