• M N Igwe, R Uwakwe, C A Ahanotu, G M Onyeama, M O Bakare, and A C Ndukuba.
• Department of Psychological Medicine, Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, Ebonyi State Nigeria. mondayigwe@yahoo.com
• Afr Health Sci. 2013 Mar 1; 13 (1): 68-77.

BackgroundDiabetes mellitus (DM) and essential hypertension are chronic medical conditions that place a lot of burden on patients. The presence of depression and suicidal behaviour may worsen the prognosis.ObjectiveTo assess the prevalence of depression and suicidal behaviour in subjects with diabetes mellitus and essential hypertension and also determine the socio-demographic correlates.MethodsMajor depressive episode and suicidality modules of Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview were used to assess depression and suicidal behaviour respectively.ResultsThe prevalence of depression for the subjects with DM was 27.8% and 26.7% for essential hypertension. The subjects with DM had prevalence of 6.3% for suicidal behaviour while essential hypertension had 7.8%. Depression was higher in subjects with DM if they were not married or had no education while the subjects with essential hypertension were more likely to have depression if they were not married, had no education or not employed. Suicidal behaviour was higher in subjects with DM if they had no education while in essential hypertension suicidal behaviour was higher in females, those not married and those not educated.ConclusionDepression and suicidal behaviour occur with DM and essential hypertension.

30 keywords...

hide…