DDiabetes psychiatry

Psychiatric and psychotherapeutic treatment to improve physical health in people with diabetes.

Some diabetes outcomes may themselves be signs of psychological or psychiatric difficulty.

Recurrent DKA, persistently very high HbA1c and recurrent severe hypoglycaemia can therefore provide a reason to look for mental-health problems — rather than waiting for somebody to present to mental-health services.

Diabetes psychiatry brings together diabetes medicine, psychiatry and psychotherapy within a single clinical formulation.

Understanding someone's insulin treatment, glucose patterns and diabetes complications sits alongside understanding their mood, cognition, relationships, social circumstances and relationship with diabetes.

The aim is not simply to diagnose mental illness in people with diabetes.

It is to understand what is producing a high-risk diabetes outcome, and to find something that can change trajectory.