The Association between Psychiatric Disorders and Quality of Life of Patient with Diabetes Mellitus

Objective: Quality of life (QOL) assessment has been employed increasingly to evaluate outcome among patients with chronic medical conditions. Such assessment could be adversely affected by psychiatric disorders, co existing with such a medical condition. Method: A cross sectional study of 251 out-patients with diabetes mellitus was done at a Nigerian University Teaching Hospital using the Composite Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) for psychiatric assessment and the World Health Organisation Quality of Life brief version (WHOQOL-BREF) to evaluate the QOL. Results: Fifty (20%) of the 251 respondents met the ICD-10 criteria for definite psychiatric diagnosis. Depression accounted for 9.6% while twenty-six (10.4%) had anxiety disorder. Of the 35 respondents who performed poorly on the overall quality of life, 17(48.57%) had psychiatric diagnosis; 9 were depressed and 8 had anxiety disorder. 39 (15.5%) scored poor on the physical health domain. 21(53.8%) of the 39 respondents with poor score had psychiatric diagnosis: 13 had depression while 8 had anxiety disorder. On domain 1 (physical health), 51 (20.3%) scored poor. Twenty-eight (54.9%) of the poor scorers had psychiatric diagnosis, 20 were depressed while 8 had anxiety. 51 (20.3%) scored poor on psychological domain (domain 2) twenty-eight (54.9%) of the poor scorers had psychiatric diagnosis, 20 of which were depressed while 8 had anxiety. 34 (13.5%) scored poor on social relations (domain 3). 19 (55.9%) of those who scored poor had psychiatric disorder and the diagnosis was depression. Conclusions: Physicians need to increase their surveillance of psychiatric co-morbidity in diabetes mellitus and collaborate with psychiatrists for a more effective liaison to improve the quality of life of patients with diabetes.