Publication:

A cross sectional study on psychological status among patients with diabetes mellitus in Kancheepuram district

Background Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. Psychiatric problems are common in diabetes mellitus and nearly 33% suffer from mental disorders. According to the NHS people with diabetes are twice as likely to suffer with depression. The aim and objective of the study was to assess the psychological status in patients with diabetes mellitus.

Methods The sample of 100 participants was involved in the study. The patients with diabetes mellitus are included in the study but with known psychiatric disturbances were excluded from the study Standardized questionnaire was used for assessment. The collected data entered in MS-Excel and the analysis done using the SPSS.

Results Depression is the most common emotional disturbance among the female participants with diabetes while anxiety is common among the male subjects, prior with 58.2% and later with 54.5%. The emotional status of diabetic patient and their religion have a significant association with p-value 0.02.

Conclusions Emotional disturbances are common among the diabetic patients and the study revealed depression is common among the female participants where as anxiety is the common psychiatric problem among males.