Psychosomatic complaints profile in patients with type 2 diabetes: a matched case-control study

Abstract

ObjectiveTo compare the prevalence of psychosomatic symptoms and their mean scores of profiles in diabetic patients and sample of sex-age-matched healthy controls.MethodsThis case-control study was conducted on 87 patients with type 2 diabetes. The control group consisted of 259 age- and gender-matched healthy participants. Psychosomatic symptoms were assessed using a comprehensive 31-item questionnaire, and psychological problems were evaluated by 12-item General Health Questionnaire and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Factor analysis, independent Student's t test, analysis of variance, and chi-square test were used for analyzing of data.ResultsThe frequency of 18 psychosomatic symptoms was significantly higher in diabetic patients with psychological problems compared with controls (P<0.05), and the most frequent were severe fatigue (54.3), feeling low on energy (48.6), disturbing thoughts (45.7), pain in the joints (34.3), and eyesore (32.4). There were significant differences in terms of psycho-fatigue (P <= 0.0001), gastrointestinal (P=0.018), neuro-skeletal (P=0.001), and pharyngeal-respiratory (P=0.009) profiles between studied groups.ConclusionsIn conclusion, diabetic patients with psychological problems had a higher frequency of psychosomatic symptoms and also higher scores of psychosomatic disorder profiles than control participants. However, further prospective investigations are required to assess whether the psychosomatic disorder/symptom pattern was caused by conditions of diabetes disease.