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Somatic items in the assessment of depressive symptoms in pediatric patients with diabetes

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Abstract

Depression inventories contain somatic items which may be related to disease rather than to depression in individuals with chronic illness. Adolescents with type 1 diabetes (n = 151) and medically well controls (n = 68) completed the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) which includes somatic and cognitive/affective symptoms. Diabetes patients reported higher levels of all depressive symptoms than controls; the discrepancy was equivalent for somatic and cognitive/affective symptoms. For diabetes patients, somatic and cognitive/affective symptoms did not correlate with indices of disease control except for number of diabetes-related hospitalizations, where the correlations were equivalent. In participants with diabetes and in controls, somatic and cognitive/affective symptoms were strongly correlated with each other. These findings were not moderated by level of depressive symptoms. Our study suggests that the somatic items on the CES-D do not confound the measurement of depressive symptoms in young people with type 1 diabetes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Boulevard, Dallas, TX, 75390-8589, USA

    Sunita M. Stewart

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Children’s Medical Center Dallas, 1935 Medical District Drive, Dallas, TX, 75235, USA

    Sunita M. Stewart & Alex Simmons

  3. Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, 5323 Harry Hines Boulevard, Dallas, TX, 75390-8589, USA

    Perrin C. White

  4. Division of Endocrinology, Children’s Medical Center Dallas, 1935 Medical District Drive, Dallas, TX, 75235, USA

    Perrin C. White

Authors
  1. Sunita M. Stewart
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  2. Alex Simmons
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  3. Perrin C. White
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Correspondence to Sunita M. Stewart.

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Stewart, S.M., Simmons, A. & White, P.C. Somatic items in the assessment of depressive symptoms in pediatric patients with diabetes. J Behav Med 34, 112–119 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-010-9289-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-010-9289-1

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