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In part 5 of this Exclusive Interview, Kathryn Kreider talks with Diabetes in Control Publisher Steve Freed about the differences between depression and distress, and clinical methods for dealing with diabetes distress.
Kathryn Kreider is an Assistant Professor at Duke University School of Nursing in Durham, NC.
Transcript of this video segment
Freed: Can you associate depression with distress?
Kreider: That’s a great question. So, there’s a lot of overlap between the two. Depression and distress are not the same. They’re independent constructs. But there definitely is a subgroup of patients that have both major depressive disorder and diabetes distress. And so, that’s another layer that needs to be screened as well to make sure that patients don’t have both conditions because the treatment is different. Depression is often treated with medication therapy, pharmacotherapy, whereas diabetes distress should not be treated with pharmacotherapy. And so, the differentiation between the two is important.
Freed: And what are some practical things you can do in the clinic to help patients who are showing signs of distress?
Kreider: So, what we’re recommending right now, first of all, is to assess using one of those easy tools that you can do, so you can gauge where your patients are. And then the second thing as a clinician would be to open lines of communication, so asking basic questions like, “How are you dealing with diabetes on a daily basis? How are you feeling about managing your diabetes? Do you feel supported in your diabetes care?” And allowing patients to start talking and to open up that door of communication, because a lot of times patients report they don’t feel comfortable talking to their clinicians about how they’re doing and how they’re managing. So, those are really the first two easy steps that you can take. It shouldn’t take too much time and it really can help build bonds with your patient and help with communication lines.