Depressive Symptoms and Ways of Coping of Patients with Diabetes Mellitus: Compared with Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients and Healthy Subjects

Sim, Min Young; Yun, Kyu Wol; Kim, Ha Kyoung; Kim, Young Chul; Hong, Young Sun; Lee, Ji Soo; Lee, Jeong Hee; Ryu, Jung Hwa; Ha, Chang Yoon; Kim, Ji Min; Sung, Yumi; Kim, Su In; Lim, Weonjeong

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
This study investigated how diabetes mellitus (DM) and depressive symptoms are related, and differed in terms of coping strategies. In addition, we compared those findings with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.
METHODS
80 DM patients, 45 RA patients and 77 healthy subjects completed the Beck depression inventory (BDI) and the Korean version of the ways of coping checklist.
RESULTS
BDI scores of depressed DM patients were significantly higher than healthy subjects (p<0.01) but not significantly with depressed RA patients. Both scores of active (p<0.01) and passive coping (p<0.05) in DM patients were significantly lower than healthy subjects (p<0.01), and the scores of wishful thinking of DM patients were significantly lower than RA patients (p<0.01). BDI scores of DM patients were significantly correlated with the number of complications and the scores of problem-focused coping (p<0.05). In the hierarchical regression analysis, even after controlling for clinical characteristics, coping strategies altogether could account for 31.0% of the variance of the depressive symptoms in DM patients significantly (p<0.01).
CONCLUSION
DM patients showed significantly higher depression rate than healthy subjects but not than RA patients. In DM patients, insufficient coping strategies could explain substantial portions of depressive symptoms. Therefore, enhancing healthier coping strategies in addition to prevent medical complications might lessen depressive symptoms experienced by DM patients.