The Impact of Hospital-diagnosed Depression or use of Antidepressants on Treatment Initiation, Adherence, and HbA1c/LDL Target Achievement in Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes
At the DDA, we are always happy to see that young talents are doing well in the research community. Christopher Rohde, who received a PhD scholarship from the DDA, is doing some exciting work, investigating the impact of treatment with antidepressants on the course of type 2 diabetes. His research was published in the prestigious journal, Diabetologia, where he was the lead author.
About Christopher Rohde's research
Individuals with type 2 diabetes and co-morbid depression are at increased risk of developing diabetes-related complications and of dying prematurely compared to individuals with type 2 diabetes without depression. This may be explained by poor diabetes treatment adherence due to the underlying depression. However, only few studies have elucidated how preexisting antidepressant treatment in individuals with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes affect time to glucose lowering drug and lipid modifying agent initiation and adherence and achievement of HbA1c- and LDL treatment targets. In this study, where we included around 87.000 individuals with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, individuals with preexisting antidepressant treatment had an increased likelihood of glucose lowering drug- and lipid-modifying agent treatment initiation and adherence compared to individuals with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes and with no depression treatment. In addition, we found that individuals with preexisting antidepressant treatment were as likely to attain HbA1c- and LDL treatment targets as individuals without depression treatment. This indicate, that treatment of preexisting depression in individuals with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes might be important to improve diabetes treatment quality.