They found that a 10-week program of therapy helped relieve depression in the majority of patients with diabetes. But not all are good candidates for drug therapy, so it's important to find other ways to treat them. While depression affects about 5 percent of the general population, the rate of clinical depression is between 15 and 20 percent in patients with diabetes.
Depression can be particularly hard on patients with diabetes.
Untreated depression is closely associated with poor glucose control. All subjects in this study had both clinical depression and diabetes. All received 10 weeks of education about diet, exercise and compliance with treatment. The findings are welcome news for researchers looking at connections between the mind and body. A number of studies have suggested that depression has negative effects on diabetes and many other physical illnesses.