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Group therapy recommended for depressed diabetic women

Category: Diabetes

Multiple medical organizations have connected the detection of diabetes through blood testing with a greater risk for the eventual development of depression. According to The Mayo Clinic, depression in diabetics could result from the additional daily stress of managing insulin deficiency and complications from diabetes-related conditions.

However, a study from Loyola University Chicago indicates that group therapy could be more helpful to depressed women coping with type 2 diabetes as a supplementary treatment to antidepressant drugs that could contribute to weight gain. The study included two groups of subjects, all of whom received positive results from diabetes blood testing. One set of subjects underwent typical treatments for diabetes and depression, while another was active in a therapy group. The researchers found 35 percent of those in group therapy remained depressed six months later, as opposed to 80 percent of subjects who underwent normal treatment.

"The next step would be to explore other tailored group cognitive-therapy programs for depression based on gender, race or disease," said Sue Penckofer, a study co-author and faculty scholar at Loyola. "This is particularly important since depression is associated with relapse and use of cognitive therapy is associated with a lower relapse rates."