Journal of AdvancedMedical and Dental Sciences Research

Background: The geriatric population is defined as population aged 60 years and above. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the major health problems of the elderly. Hence; the present study was undertaken for assessing the prevalence of psychiatric illness among diabetic geriatric patients. Materials & methods: A total of 50 geriatric patients within the age range of 65 to 80 years were enrolled. Only those patients were included which had history of diabetes for a minimum of 20 years. Permission of institutional ethical committee was obtained. All the selected patients were administered the proforma containing socio-demographic history, present history and past history of patients of psychiatric illness. Assessment of psychiatric co-morbidity among the patients was assessed. All the results were recorded in Microsoft excel sheet and were analysed by SPSS software. Results: Psychiatric illness was seen in 38 percent of the patients. Depression was seen in 42.11 percent of the patients, while anxiety was seen in 31.58 percent of the patients. Delirium was seen in 15.79 percent of the patients. Non-significant results were obtained while correlating psychiatric illness with age and gender-wise distribution of patients. Conclusion: Anxiety and depression were the most common psychiatric illness among diabetic geriatric patients. Key words: Psychiatric illness, Geriatric, Diabetic