New study Shows that children and young adults with type 1 diabetes have an increased risk of developing mental illnesses, such as depression, anxiety, and stress-related problems.

The study of the record, conducted by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, was conducted on nearly 3.5 million people born in Sweden in the years 1973-2007 and their parents, siblings and cousins ​​to investigate the relationship between type 1 diabetes and mental illness.

Of the 20,005 people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as children, 10.8 percent were diagnosed with anxiety, depression, or stress-related disorders later in life. They were twice as likely to be depressed as people without the disease. For anxiety and stress-related problems, the risk was about 1.5 times higher.

Fathers and full siblings were more at risk of anxiety and stress-related problems, a risk that disappeared when it came to half siblings and cousins. According to the researchers, this suggests that genes may be a contributing factor.

Many people in diabetes care assume that childhood diabetes negatively affects the mental health of both the patient and family members. But we don’t think the answer is that simple. Our study suggests that there may also be a genetic component behind this association, researcher and final author of the study Agnieszka Butwick at the Karolinska Institutet says in an article on forskning.se.