“People with type 1 diabetes depend on regular insulin injections and on adhering to multiple self care tasks to achieve optimal glycaemic control. Suboptimal glycaemic control1 2 and complications of diabetes are associated with depression, eating problems, and fears specific to diabetes.”

A recent major review of clinical studies (meta-analysis) in the British Medical Journal examined psychological treatment for type I diabetes, and found that glycaemic control was improved for children and adolescents who received the treatment, but not for adults. There were a variety of different forms of psychological treatments examined (cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, counseling/motivational interviewing, and family systems therapy), although most of them used sp,e from of cognitive-behavioral therapy administered to groups. Essentially, it appears that the psychological treatments help with improving psychological distress related to having diabetes, which in turn helps improve the manageability of the condition. It was believed that the interventions were effective for children and not for adults because there was more distress surrounding children with the condition. The reseaerchers also noted that future work should develop specific therapies for working with individuals with diabetes, and investigate whether individual therapy rather than group would be more effective, particularly for adults. I think it’s great to see that counseling can be effective in helping people control this condition, and I hope that researchers do follow up on the authors’ request to continue developing more specific treatments.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 13 Jul 2006
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.