Laurita Jasiūnaitė¹, Jorūnė Jurjonaitė¹, Dorina Buliauskaitė¹

¹ Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine

Abstract

 

A number of the patients with diabetes mellitus, along with other non-infectious diseases, has been increasing year by year. As of 2017, an estimated 425 million people had diabetes globally,  type 2 diabetes miellitus making up about 90% of the cases. The main symptoms of diabetes miellitus are thirst, polyuria, decreased vision acuity, decreased body weight. Inadequate control of the disease can result in life threatening condition like hypoglycemic coma. The symptoms of diabetes miellitus are non-specific and due to this often the disease is diagnosed only when complications appear.  Chronic complications of diabetes miellitus are caused due to damage in small blood vessels and nerves. Damage to the eyes, known as diabetic retinopathy, is caused by damage to the blood vessels in the retina of the eye, and can result in vision loss .  Damage to the kidneys, known as diabetic nephropathy, eventually can result in  chronic kidney disease and may require  dialysis or kidney transplantation. Treatment of diabetes mellitus requires routine control, self-monitoring and prevention of complications with a restriction of patient’s social activity, decrease of emotional satisfaction, reduction of life quality. Psychological state uses to worsen due to stress. It has been proved that patients with diabetes 2 are at risk to suffer from depression, increased twice, comparing with non-diabetic persons. Expression of depression and anxiety for the type II diabetes patients are related to social demographic factors: sex, income, education, physical activity and disease features, i.e. duration, complications, treatment method, glycated haemoglobin in blood serum.  Episodes of depression occur due to fear of complications, thus increasing risk of real complications and death, as related to the lack of physical activity and unhealthy eating. The aim of this article is to overview the most important appropriate researches and pay attention to importance of psychological state of the patients with diabetes mellitus.

 

Keywords: II type diabetes mellitus, depression, anxiety, psychological well-being.