In Diabetes, One More Burden for the Mentally Ill
From NYT > Health:
"Uncontrolled diabetes can ruin a person's life as much as uncontrolled schizophrenia," said Dr. Newcomer, a professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
In fact, among the mentally ill, roughly one in every five appear to develop diabetes --- about double the rate of the general population.
This is a little-recognized surge, but one that is jolting mental health professionals into rethinking how they care for an often neglected population.
For decades, psychiatrists have worried primarily about patients' mental states, making sure they did no harm to themselves or others because of unrelenting voices or a smothering depression.
Far more of the mentally ill, however, die today from diabetes and complications like heart disease than from suicide.
Given that mental health specialists are often the only doctors a mentally ill diabetic ever sees, some have begun to debate the customary limits of psychiatric practice, deciding to pay much more attention to physical ailments.
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