Dr. Elizabeth Lin MD, MPH, Group Health Research Institute
Depression raises the risks of advanced and severe complications from type 2 diabetes, according to a prospective study of nearly 4,000 Group Health primary-care patients.
These complications include kidney failure or blindness, the result of small-vessel damage, as well as problems of major blood vessels leading to heart attack or stroke.
The February 2010 Diabetes Care, a scientific journal of the American Diabetes Association, published these findings. Scientists from Group Health Research Institute, the University of Washington (UW) Schools of Medicine and of Public Health, and the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System conducted the study.
“Systematic care for both depression and diabetes, as well as regular follow-up with patients’ primary care team, are essential to help control their depression and diabetes well,” said lead author Elizabeth Lin, MD, MPH, a Group Health family physician and GHRI affiliate investigator. “When patients with diabetes also have depression, they have significantly higher risks of developing complications such as amputation, vision loss, kidney failure, heart attacks, and strokes—and even of dying five to 10 years earlier.”
