Researchers at the National Institute of Health sought to find if there was a connection between diabetes and depression during pregnancy.

And guess what?

There is one.

Specifically, they found that women who suffered from symptoms of depression in the early stages of pregnancy had a higher chance of developing gestational diabetes. Similarly, they also discovered that women with gestational diabetes have a higher tendency of being plagued with postpartum depression.

There is clearly a link between the two disorders, but why?

What is the Connection Between Diabetes and Depression?

That was the mystery the researchers were trying to solve.

For their study, data were gathered from the NICHD Fetal Growth Studies-Singleton Cohort. In total, the research project included 468 obese women and 2,334 non-obese women.

The participants in the study took a depression-screening questionnaire early in their pregnancy, between weeks 8-13, repeated the survey between weeks 16-22, and then completed the last one six weeks post-partum.

The results? The risk of gestational diabetes in women whose scores topped the chart for depression in the first two trimesters spiked by three fold!

It’s important to note that the link between minor depression and the risk of gestational diabetes was not as significant. Instead, the persistent depression appears to be the dominant factor that promulgated the risk.

Another noteworthy highlight of the study is that the association between diabetes and depression only held true for the non-obese pregnant women,  despite the fact that the obese participants are at greater risk of gestational diabetes.

Next Steps

In light of these findings, what measures should be taken from here?

Senior author Cuilin Zhang stresses that physicians may want to pay close attention to any pregnant women who are scoring high for depression. Doing so can better guide the physician in assessing the risk for gestational diabetes.

For pregnant women, it’s important to talk about depression symptoms and share them with their doctor as there can be strategies to help cope with this disorder. Speaking about it may help cut their risk of developing gestational diabetes.

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