Major depressive disorder in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: Prevalence and clinical characteristics

Abstract

Background: This study investigated the prevalence of major depressive disorder (MDD) among Taiwanese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Methods: We enrolled patients with at least one service claim for ambulatory or inpatient care with a principal diagnosis of MDD and at least two service claims for ambulatory care or one service claim for inpatient care with a principal diagnosis of T2DM, as listed in Taiwan's National Health Insurance database.

Results: We enrolled 715,756 people from the general population (GP), 61,589 patients with T2DM but without MDD, and 778 patients with both T2DM and MDD. The prevalence of MDD increased from 0.70% to 1.25% in the patients with T2DM, whereas it increased from 0.25% to 0.67% in the GP from 2000 to 2010. The higher prevalence of MDD was associated with the female sex, residing in the southern regions of Taiwan, and having comorbidities of cerebrovascular disease and anxiety disorder as well as higher comorbidity severity (Charlson comorbidity index, 1-2 and > 2).

Limitations: One limitation is the use of secondary data on diagnoses of MDD and T2DM. Another limitation is that we could not access some crucial related variables.

Conclusions: The prevalence of MDD was higher in the patients with T2DM than in the GP. In this study, the prevalence of MDD in the patients with T2DM was lower than that reported in Western countries.

Keywords: Major depressive disorder; National health insurance; Prevalence; Type 2 diabetes mellitus.