Juvenile type 1 diabetes associated with elevated mental health risks: Study

A new study published in the recent edition of the Nature Mental Health journal found that juvenile type 1 diabetes is associated with elevated risk of anxiety, behavioral syndromes, mood, personality problems and other mental health issues. 

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) results from the death of pancreatic β-cells and a permanent lack of insulin. There is strong evidence from several large-scale population-based studies that T1D with a juvenile beginning and ensuing adult mental problems are significantly comorbid. When compared to their classmates, children with T1D report higher levels of discomfort, more problems in behavior and a worse quality of life. Also, parents of these children with T1D report significant levels of family disturbance and suffering. Therefore, to overcome the shortcomings of previous research and to evaluate putative causal links between mental problems and childhood-onset T1D, Tomáš Formánek and team undertook this study.

A two-step analytical method was employed in this work to reduce bias and/or confounding. First, the relationship between T1D and later psychiatric illnesses was examined using national registration data from the Czech Republic. Also, the data from extensive genome-wide association studies (GWAS) involving European individuals were subjected to separate bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis in order to further examine the connections.

According to the findings of this study, kids with T1D were more likely to experience behavioral syndromes, mood, anxiety, personality problems and drug abuse. On the other hand, the children with T1D were less likely to experience psychotic episodes. A relationship with schizophrenia was also detected in a Mendelian randomization study. However, this association did not hold after multiple testing corrections. Together, observational and Mendelian randomization data point to a predisposing relationship between childhood T1D diagnosis and significant, far-reaching psychological illness that is unlikely to be explained by shared underlying biological processes.

Overall, the outcomes of this research highlighted the extensive and far-reaching psychological effects of a juvenile T1D diagnosis by combining in-depth observational and genetic epidemiology investigations. In the decades that follow a childhood T1D diagnosis, there is an increased chance of acquiring most mental diseases, with the exception of psychoses, according to this observational research.

Source:

Formánek, T., Chen, D., Šumník, Z., Mladá, K., Hughes, J., Burgess, S., Wareham, N. J., Murray, G. K., Jones, P. B., & Perry, B. I. (2024). Childhood-onset type 1 diabetes and subsequent adult psychiatric disorders: a nationwide cohort and genome-wide Mendelian randomization study. In Nature Mental Health. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-024-00280-8