ABSTRACT
Introduction: Type-2 diabetes mellitus is a common, chronic metabolic disorder with multiple complications if not well controlled. Depression is a very common psychiatric comorbidity in these patients. Multiple environmental and patient related factors are linked with this co-morbidity. It is important to address depression and related factors in these patients for a better outcome. This study aimed to assess depression and distribution of various socio-demographic and clinical details in patients of type-2 diabetes mellitus. Material and Methods: Using a purposive sampling technique, a total of 118 patients of type-2 diabetes mellitus who fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria of this study were enrolled. They were administered Hamilton Depression Rating Scale to assess depression. Overall 66.1% of the patients had co-morbidity of depression. Results: Significantly more number of patients of type-2 diabetes mellitus with co-morbid depression were unmarried (41% vs 15%, χ2=9.029, df=2, p<.05), unemployed/unskilled workers (21.8% vs 5% / 73.1% vs 55%, χ2=24.893, df=2, p<.01), from lower socio-economic status (71.8% vs 52.5%, χ2=4.342, df=1, p<.05), joint family (33.3% vs 7.5%, χ2=9.519, df=1, p<.05) and rural background (82.1% vs 62.5%, χ2=5.453, df=1, p<.05), and had poor control of the level of HbA1c (55.1% vs 2.5%, χ2=41.022, df=2, p<.01) than those without co-morbid depression. There was a significant negative correlation of years in education with HAM-D total score (r=-.471, p<0.01). Conclusion: A co-morbidity of depression is very common in patients of type-2 diabetes mellitus and various sociodemographic and clinical factors are linked to this comorbidity. It is important to address these issues for the sake of overall better outcome in type-2 diabetes mellitus.