Dealing with diabetes means handling a lot of challenging situations. For teenagers and young adults especially, having your life “turned upside-down” can be quite depressing. But could depression somehow lead to getting diabetes?
According to a research team in Canada, young adults with a history of depression have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Diabetes and depression often go together, but it has never been clear if one leads to the other.
So, the researchers looked at more than 33,000 cases of type 2 diabetes in people who were at least 20 years old. Then, they compared them to twice as many people who did not have diabetes.
It turns out that people who had been recently diagnosed with diabetes were more likely to have a history of depression.
The researchers note there are several factors that could explain this association. People who are depressed are more likely to experience weight changes (up and down) and less likely to change their behaviors (exercise, diet) to fix the problem. Both of these situations increase the risk of diabetes.
Another possible explanation is that many of the medications used to treat depression cause weight gain and “sleepiness,” and may contribute to the development of diabetes.
