- Gestational diabetes occurs if a woman’s body lacks insulin production
- Those depressed in early pregnancy are likelier to develop the condition
- Experts believe that both depression and diabetes ‘may occur together’
- Doctors should look for signs of depression in pregnant women, they say
Stephen Matthews For Mailonline
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Being depressed while pregnant or after having given birth could be down to having diabetes, scientists claim.
Pregnant women who have the mental illness are three times more likely to develop gestational diabetes, a study found.
While they are also four times more likely to develop the blues after giving birth if they had the high blood sugar condition during pregnancy.
The findings have led experts to believe that depression and diabetes ‘may occur together’.
Pregnant women who have depression are three times more likely to develop gestational diabetes, researchers found
Doctors should keep an eye out for signs of depression in pregnant women to then check for symptoms of gestational diabetes, researchers from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development say.
Lead researcher, Stefanie Hinkle, said: ‘Our data suggest that depression and gestational diabetes may occur together.’
‘Until we learn more, physicians may want to consider observing pregnant women with depressive symptoms for signs of gestational diabetes.
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‘They also may want to monitor women who have had gestational diabetes for signs of postpartum depression.’
Gestational diabetes occurs if a woman’s body can’t produce enough insulin to meet the extra needed in pregnancy.
If left untreated, it can lead to pre-eclampsia and raises the chance of having to have a Caeserean section.
Doctors should keep an eye out for signs of depression in pregnant women to then check for symptoms of gestational diabetes
Both woman and child are also at higher risk of developing full-blown diabetes in later life.
However, it usually disappears after giving birth.
The condition affects 120,000 expectant mothers in England and Wales each year, while it develops in 9.2 per cent of US women.
THE LINK BETWEEN BIRTH MONTH AND GESTATIONAL DIABETES
Rates of gestational diabetes in pregnant women peak during the summer months, research suggests.
Increasing temperature could be responsible for more cases of the form of the high blood sugar condition that usually occurs in the second half of pregnancy.
The three-year study found expectant mothers are 51 per cent more likely to develop the condition during June, July and August compared to the winter months, scientists found.
Results were grouped together into months and seasons with statistical modelling used to calculate the differences.
Researchers from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development looked at health data of around 2,800 women and their babies both during and after pregnancy.
Participants were asked to fill out questionnaires in both the first and second trimesters – as well as six weeks after giving birth.
They questions indicated if they had any signs of depression, allowing researchers to calculate a depression score.
Medical records were also reviewed to see if gestational diabetes had occurred.
Researchers found 15 per cent of women who developed the condition showed signs of being depressed after giving birth.
This was almost four times higher than those who didn’t have gestational diabetes.
They also found those with high depression scores in the first and second trimesters were three times more likely to have gestational diabetes.
But they said more research was needed to firmly establish the link between the two conditions.
The study was published in the journal Diabetologia.
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