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

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