Mental health care may benefit younger diabetics

Psychological interventions can translate into better blood sugar levels, but access to these therapies may be an issue.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Aug. 14, 2006.

A new study shows that, especially for young people who have type 1 diabetes, mental and physical health may be part and parcel.

Specifically, a meta-analysis, published in the July 8 British Medical Journal concluded that psychological interventions can lead to an average half-point reduction in the hemoglobin A1c levels of children and adolescents with this illness. Such efforts were also shown to significantly lower the distress associated with confronting a chronic illness.

These approaches, which included cognitive behavioral, family systems and psychodynamic therapy, however, did not have the same impact among adults with type 1 diabetes. The researchers did find previously, though, that such interventions offered benefits for people of all ages who had type 2 diabetes.

Overall, experts said that -- when it comes to chronic disease -- these findings highlight the need to attend to the mind and the body to help patients accomplish the daily steps necessary to stay healthy.

"It is increasingly clear that there is a connection between glycemic control and psychological state for patients with diabetes," said Susan Frayne, MD, MPH, a staff physician at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System and an associate professor of medicine at Stanford University, both in California.

But while some view this meta-analysis as adding to the body of evidence supporting psychological interventions, they also see it as bringing to light holes in the research.