ESPE Yearbook of Paediatric Endocrinology

Diabetes Care. 2020;43(2):484–486. doi: 10.2337/dc19-1487.

This retrospective study in Quebec, Canada included 3,544 adolescents and young adults with diabetes and 1 388 397 without diabetes. It concludes that between the ages of 15 and 25 years, the risks of psychiatric disorders and suicide attempts were substantially higher in adolescents and young adults with diabetes than those without diabetes.

The authors linked routine databases of adolescents (age 15 years) and without prior psychiatric disorders between 1997 and 2015, and followed to age 25 years. Individuals with diabetes were more likely to suffer from a mood disorder (diagnosed in the emergency department or hospital) (adjusted hazard ratio 1.33 [95% CI 1.19–1.50]), attempted suicide (3.25 [1.79–5.88]), visit a psychiatrist (1.82 [1.67–1.98]), and experience any type of psychiatric disorder (1.29 [1.21–1.37]) compared with those without diabetes.

It remains important to understand how this risk is conferred to subjects with diabetes and whether or not the burden of disease contributes substantially to the development of psychiatric illness. Meanwhile, clinicians caring for you adults and adolescents with diabetes should be very aware of the risk of psychiatric disease in the patients they care for. A multidisciplinary approach to care for individuals with diabetes and psychiatric issues should be developed.