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ABSTRACT: The aim of the study was to examine the course (incidence, recurrence/persistence) of depressive symptoms in primary care patients with type 2 diabetes and to identify significant predictors of these different course patterns.
A cohort of 2,460 primary care patients with type 2 diabetes was assessed for demographic, clinical and psychological factors in 2005 and followed-up in 2007 and 2008. Depression was defined as a score of ≥ 12 on the Edinburgh Depression Scale. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to determine whether several depression-course patterns could be predicted by means of demographics, medical co-morbidities and psychological factors.
A total of 630 patients (26%) met the criterion for depression at one or more assessments. In the subgroup with no baseline depression, incident depression at follow-up was present in 14% (n = 310), while recurrence/persistence in those with baseline depression was found in 66% (n = 212).The presence of any depression was associated with being female, low education, non-cardiovascular chronic diseases, stressful life events and a self-reported history of depression. Incident depression was predicted by female sex, low education and depression history, while patients with a history of depression had a 2.5-fold increased odds of recurrent/persistent depression.
Depression is common in primary care patients with type 2 diabetes, with one in seven patients reporting incident depression during a 2.5 year period. Once present, depression often becomes a chronic/recurrent condition in this group. In order to identify patients who are vulnerable to depression, clinicians can use questionnaire data and/or information about the history of depression.
Diabetologia 12/2011; 55(3):608-16. · 6.81 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of depression in insulin-naive diabetes patients and to investigate the associations between different forms of vascular co-morbidity and depression.
Cross-sectional data were used from a primary-care sample of 1,269 insulin-naive (i.e. not using insulin therapy) diabetes patients participating in the DIAZOB Primary Care Diabetes study. Demographics, vascular co-morbidities, clinical and lifestyle characteristics, and psychosocial factors were assessed. Depression symptoms were measured with the Edinburgh Depression Scale, with a score >11 defined as depression. The chi (2) and Student's t tests were used to compare groups with and without vascular co-morbidities. Rates and odds ratios of depression were calculated for each vascular co-morbidity, with diabetes only as the reference group, correcting for age and sex. Single and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to test a more comprehensive model regarding the likelihood of depression in diabetes.
The prevalence of depression was 11% in the total sample with little difference between the groups with and without any vascular co-morbidity (11.2% vs 10.0%). Single vascular co-morbidities were not associated with increased rates of depression. The final model predicting depression included: having multiple vascular co-morbidities compared with none; having less social support; having experienced a recent stressful life event; female sex; and being a smoker.
Rates of depression in those with one additional vascular co-morbidity did not differ from patients with diabetes only. Vascular co-morbidities were only associated with higher depression scores in case of multiple co-morbidities.
Diabetologia 09/2009; 52(10):2056-63. · 6.81 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Internet-based cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is a promising new approach for the treatment of depressive symptoms. The current study had two aims: (1) to determine whether, after 1 year, an internet-based CBT intervention was more effective than a waiting-list control group; and (2) to determine whether the effect of the internet-based CBT differed from the group CBT intervention, 1 year after the start of treatment.
A total of 191 women and 110 men (mean age=55 years, s.d.=4.6) with subthreshold depression were randomized into internet-based treatment, group CBT (Lewinsohn's Coping with Depression Course), or a waiting-list control condition. The main outcome measure was treatment response after 1 year, defined as the difference in pretreatment and follow-up scores on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Missing data were imputed using the multiple imputation procedure of data augmentation. Analyses were performed using multiple imputation inference.
In the waiting-list control group, we found a pretreatment to follow-up improvement effect size of 0.69, which was 0.62 in the group CBT condition and 1.22 with the internet-based treatment condition. Simple contrasts showed a significant difference between the waiting-list condition and internet-based treatment (p=0.03) and no difference between both treatment conditions (p=0.08).
People aged over 50 years with subthreshold depression can still benefit from internet-based CBT 1 year after the start of treatment.
Psychological Medicine 06/2008; 38(5):635-9. · 6.16 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Alexithymia is hypothesized to be a stable trait that hinders favourable outcomes of psychotherapy. We tested two hypotheses: i) alexithymia is not stable but changes along with a change in depressive symptoms and ii) pretreatment alexithymia hinders gaining benefits from psychotherapy.
A total of 201 participants (mean age = 54 years, SD = 4.4) with subthreshold depression were treated with cognitive behaviour therapy. Outcome was defined as the change in depressive symptoms from pretreatment to post-treatment and to 1-year follow-up.
Changes in depressive symptoms were significantly correlated with changes in alexithymia. Baseline alexithymia scores were not correlated with treatment outcome.
Alexithymia is less stable than hypothesized: changes in alexithymia were associated with change in depressive symptoms. Furthermore, alexithymia does not hinder cognitive behaviour therapy outcome.
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 06/2008; 118(2):164-7. · 4.22 Impact Factor
