A comparison of baseline sociodemographic and clinical characteristics between major depressive disorder patients with and without diabetes: A STAR^*D report

Background: Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) have high rates of medical comorbidities which can impair MDD treatment. Yet little is known regarding associations between the presence of a serious comorbidity and MDD treatment. The purpose of this study was to examine the baseline sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of MDD outpatients with and without diabetes mellitus to evaluate possible associations between these characteristics and the presence of comorbid diabetes. Methods: We gathered baseline sociodemographic and clinical data for 4041 participants with non-psychotic MDD who enrolled in the STAR^*D, a large-scale depression treatment protocol, and made comparisons between participants with and without diabetes. Results: Participants with diabetes were more likely to be male, older, black, Hispanic, unemployed, and have less education, a lower income, higher mental functioning, lower physical functioning, atypical features, increased appetite, psychomotor slowing and leaden paralysis, and were less likely to have concurrent alcohol abuse/dependence, mood reactivity or problems with concentration. We found no significant differences between groups regarding depression severity. Limitations: The primary limitation is the lack of a clinical diagnosis of diabetes. Conclusions: We found no difference in depression severity between participants with and without diabetes. Diabetes was associated with physical symptoms of depression. Thus treatments for these participants should be directed toward these symptoms.