Mental Health

A high percentage of people with diabetes also suffer from depression, and professionals need to be aware of things that they can do to help.

With stay-at-home orders, daily routines for many diabetes patients have been disrupted, creating concerns over the possible consequences of added stress, isolation, and elevated blood sugars.

People who have diabetes and depression have a higher risk of complications from both diseases. 

Does being a member of a minority ethnicity put you at risk of being overlooked for depression?

Regular lifestyle counseling can have positive long term clinical outcomes in patients with diabetes. 

Patients who have diabetes should be screened for psychological risk factors.

Patients with diabetes are two times more likely to present with symptoms of depression; how does this affect diabetes outcomes?

Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes increase the risk of depression.

Paula Trief, PhD received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Syracuse University. She joined the faculty at SUNY Upstate Medical University in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences in 1993. She is currently a tenured Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, with joint appointments in the departments of Medicine and Orthopedic Surgery. Academically, she is an active behavioral science researcher, studying behavioral interventions for patients with diabetes. Her current RO1 studies factors that predict medication adherence and healthcare usage in emerging adults with type 2 diabetes.

In this Exclusive Interview transcript, psychologist Paula Trief talks with Diabetes in Control Publisher Steve Freed during the ADA 2018 convention in Orlando about the role of mental health in diabetes and how partners of people with diabetes can be of support in diabetes care.