The study is the first to report on the association between impulse control disorders and diabetes diagnosis. The research is by Dr Peter de Jonge, Interdisciplinary Center for Psychopathology and Emotion Regulation, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Netherlands, and colleagues worldwide.

While previous studies have explored the associations between diabetes and depression, they have limitations. First, most have been conducted in Europe and the USA, and diabetes and depression vary in prevalence worldwide, thus more global studies are needed. Secondly, and the authors say more importantly, depression often co-occurs with several other mental health disorders -- not only with anxiety disorders but also with many of the other Diagnostic Statistical Manual, 4th edition (DSM-IV) mental disorders such as eating disorders and alcohol abuse. Thus the authors did this new study, within the framework of the World Mental Health Surveys* to examine the associations between a wide range of DSM-IV mental disorders and diabetes diagnosis. This approach enabled them to investigate the association between first onset of mood, anxiety, impulse control (including eating disorders) and substance use disorders with diabetes diagnosis in a large international sample, with data coming from 19 countries: Colombia, Mexico, Peru, USA, Shenzhen (China), Japan, New Zealand, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Iraq, the UK (Northern Ireland) and Poland. More than 50,000 participants were included in the analysis.