Diabetes from Depression: Older adults face dual risk

Adults 65 and older who report depressive symptoms are 50 to 60 percent more likely to develop diabetes than are their peers, according to a new study. The study is the first to show that depression alone, apart from lifestyle factors such as poor diet and lack of exercise, can trigger type 2 diabetes in older adults, reports Mercedes Carnethon of the Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago.

"This means doctors need to take depressive symptoms in older adults very seriously," she says. Earlier research had shown the connection in younger adults.

Among all age groups, adults 65 and older suffer the second-highest rate of depression and the highest rate of type 2 diabetes, which appears after tissues develop resistance to the body's natural insulin. ...

Treatment of depression is even helpful for adults who already have diabetes, according to a report in the April Diabetes Care. In that study, Patrick Lustman and his colleagues at Washington University in St. Louis found that treatment with the antidepressant sertraline (Zoloft) was useful in diabetes management. Says Lustman: "We know that controlling depression by whatever method -- whether with exercise, activity, cognitive therapy, or medication -- improves the likelihood that blood glucose will be better controlled. That's the key to preventing the complications of diabetes."

•	Diabetes from Depression: Older adults face dual risk Vol. 171, No. 17 Science News, Saturday, April 28, 2007 Byline: Brian Vastag