Dementia Risk in Diabetic Adults Doubled by Major Depression

Major depression more than doubles the risk of dementia among adults with diabetes, a new study has shown.

Dementia is the progressive decline of thinking and reasoning abilities. These can include memory loss, difficulty with basic math, wandering, living in the past, personality changes, and not recognizing familiar people.

Diseases Related to Old Age
Ageing is referred to the accumulation of changes that brings a person closer to death.

"Diabetes alone has shown to be a risk factor for dementia, as has major depression by itself," said the lead author of the study, Dr. Wayne Katon, University of Washington (UW) professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences.

The study team also included researchers from the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle and the Veterans Affairs (VA) Puget Sound Health Care System, as well as UW researchers in medicine and in epidemiology.

Katon and the other authors noted that various other population studies have shown that the risk of Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and other types of dementia is from 40 percent to 100 percent higher in people with diabetes, compared to people without diabetes.

Gestational Diabetes About
The condition is not caused by a lack of insulin, but by the action of hormones produced during pregnancy that blocks the action of insulin.

A history of depression more than doubles the subsequent risk of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia in the general population.

"We wanted to determine the effects of both conditions - diabetes and major depression--occurring together. Our analysis suggests that major depression more than doubles the risk of dementia in adults with diabetes," Katon said.

Type 2 Diabetes - Risk Factors - Symptoms & Signs - Management - Prevention
Globalization and changing lifestyles has made diabetes very common in developing countries so much so that India is known as the Diabetes Capital of the World.

The study has been published in the recent Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Source-ANI
RAS

Diabetes Essentials: Types, Complications, Management & Treatment
Diabetes is a metabolic disease caused by insulin deficiency that leads to high blood sugar levels and several associated complications if left untreated.