Diabetes, depression and Zoloft

By prevalence, depression is ranked No 3 among all diseases after arterial hypertension and influenza.

Depression is recognized by health economists as one of the most expensive disease. The costs associated with depression in the U.S. alone is estimated at 47.5 billion dollars a year (including the cost of hospital care, drugs, the cost of additional studies, the losses due to reduced productivity, death from suicide, etc.)

Diabetes, depression and Zoloft

Obviously, the main method of treatment of depressive disorders is psychopharmacology, in particular, the use of antidepressants. The most outstanding representative of the SSRI class of drugs against depression is Zoloft.

This modern antidepressant has a high safety profile, has to be taken once a day only regardless meals, lack of dependence plus good tolerance and, consequently, the possibility of prolonged use. Among all the antidepressants, Zoloft has the widest range of indications for use: depression, obsessions, panic attacks, posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessions in children (above the age of 6 years). Zoloft can be considered the most universal antidepressant. In the U.S. Zoloft is the most frequently prescribed antidepressant.

The results of recent studies of Zoloft treatment of patients with diabetes mellitus have shown to be very interesting. In laboratory studies, it has been found that SSRIs reduce the level of glucose in the blood. The scientists studied administration of Zoloft in the dose of 50 mg a day for 10 weeks in patients with diabetes and major depressive disorder. The result of such therapy were:

• a significant reduction in the level of depression (a decrease in the Hamilton depression scale from 22,6 to 4,9)
• improvement (from 59, 7% to 69.1%)
• reduction of HbA1C in 75% of patients (despite the short period of treatment of 10 weeks).

Also, there have been conducted two studies of Zoloft in diabetic neuropathy where patients were taking the antidepressant for 8 weeks. Both studies reported a significant pain relief and paresthesia reduction. Moreover, the second study showed a significant reduction in HbA1C level. Improvement in these studies correlated with the initial content of serotonin in platelets and serotonin levels in the plasma by the end of the study.

When choosing an antidepressant, it should be taken into account the dosing scheme, the impact on the sleep, memory, pharmacokinetics, interaction with other medicines and lactogenic hormone.