Study shows children with diabetes have high rates of mood disorders – What could possibly be the link?

mymedicplus — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 09:19:06 +0000

Source – https://www.timesnownews.com/

According to new research from the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, first nations children are experiencing a double burden of physical and mental illness.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

Diabetes is one of the most common conditions that affects millions of people around the world

According to a study, children who suffer from diabetes are likely to have a high rate of mood disorders such as depression or anxiety

Here is all you need to know about the link between the two

New Delhi: Diabetes – be it type 1 diabetes, or type 2 diabetes, is increasing manifold around the world, every year, so much so that it has been labelled an epidemic by some. While type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle disorder, type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disorder that affects the pancreas, thereby causing the disease. The incidence of children born with type 1 diabetes, or those who develop it soon after birth, is on a rise, globally, especially in the first world countries.

Diabetes, however, is not just about physical health, as previously believed. According to new research from the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, first nations children are experiencing a double burden of physical and mental illness.

Here is what the study says

According to the study, the rate of type 2 diabetes among young people is rising dramatically, and the majority of these children are of the First Nations heritage.

These children were also 25 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, as compared to other kids, one of the authors of the study said.

Another study, conducted in Ontario, and published in February in the Canadian Medical Association Journal showed that between 1995 and 2014, both the prevalence and incidence of all types of diabetes were “substantially higher” among the First Nations people than among other people in Ontario.

“The kids we see with diabetes have high rates of other co-morbidities — liver disease, kidney disease, they have high rates of obesity,” Sellers, one of the authors of the study, said. “They don’t just have Type 2 diabetes.”

Beyond the physical ailments, the Manitoba research also discovered that young First Nations people with Type 2 diabetes have high rates of mental health disorders, “and in particularly high rates of mood and anxiety disorders and high rates of suicide and suicide attempts,” she said.

Sellers, a pediatric diabetes specialist, treats children from Manitoba and from First Nations in the Sioux Lookout zone in northwestern Ontario, where she said many of the health concerns are the same, as families are connected across the provincial boundary.

What could possibly be the link between type 2 diabetes, and mental health issues?

According to the researchers of the study, more data will have to be found on this to establish a causal link. While people are aware that physical ailments can cause stress and anxiety among people, to understand if there exists a direct link is something that needs to be looked into.

Researchers will also have to see which of the two is the cause, and which is the effect of the former – if living with a mental health issue can trigger type 2 diabetes, or vice versa.

Researchers also believe that this may have link with racial or communal discrimination which not only has an effect on the living conditions of people, but also on their psychological health.

The post Study shows children with diabetes have high rates of mood disorders – What could possibly be the link? appeared first on MyMedicPlus.

Mental Illness to Finally Be Covered Under Health Insurance, HIV/AIDS Still Excluded

mymedicplus — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 08:03:30 +0000

Source: thewire.in

New Delhi: In a relief to patients with some mental illnesses, speech disorders, drug-related issues and those who are in need of artificial life support, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has come up with new guidelines that say that many of these issues can no longer be excluded from health insurance contracts.

However, people with HIV/AIDS, epilepsy, heart disease and a number of other common health ailments are to be “permanently excluded” from health insurance coverage.

This attempt at standardisation by IRDAI follows years of arbitrariness and variance across insurance contracts from different companies, which claim to cover some illness and not others. In order to streamline this, the IRDAI put together a working group in July 2018, and now has come up with the guidelines. The new guidelines standardise what kind of conditions can be excluded from health insurance contracts.

The new guidelines do four things: They list a number of health issues that cannot be excluded by insurance policies, and includes the standard language that should be used if there is an exclusion. They also list some existing diseases that can be excluded, and modern medical treatments that should be covered under insurance.

Health insurance policies can now no longer exclude the following:

Treatment of mental illness, stress or psychological disorders and neurodegenerative disorders,
Treatment of speech and language disorders such as stammering, dyslexia and any other behavioural and neurodevelopmental disorders, including in adults,
Treatment that arises due a patient failing to follow medical advice,
Injuries and illness associated with any hazardous activities (adventure sports will not be covered),
Impairment of a person’s intellect due to drugs, stimulants or depressants, which are prescribed by a doctor,
Artificial life support even if the treatment won’t result in the recovery of the patient to her previous state of health,
Treatment for things related to puberty or menopause for women, and
Treatments of age-related macular degeneration.

However there is still a substantial number of health conditions that are to be “permanently excluded” from health insurance policies, many of which are common:

Epilepsy,
HIV/AIDS,
Hepatitis B,
Heart ailment, congenital heart disease and valvular heart disease,
Parkinson’s disease,
Hearing loss, and
Chronic liver disease and chronic kidney disease, pancreatic disease and inflammatory bowel disease.

Mental illness coverage is being delayed, HIV/AIDS is excluded

Although the guidelines say that mental illness is going to be covered by all health insurance policies, it is only for policies that are filed on or after October 1, 2019. Existing insurance policies will have to include mental illness only from October 1, 2020.

The Mental Healthcare Act was passed in 2017 and was enforced in 2018. So the IRDAI is delaying the implementation of this Act in insurance policies by at least three years.

Also on HIV/AIDS, parliament passed the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Act in 2017 and Section 3 of this Act says that “no person shall discriminate against the protected person on any ground including the denial of, or unfair treatment in the provision of insurance unless supported by actuarial studies”.

The Act clearly says that patients with HIV/AIDS are not supposed to be denied insurance coverage.

But on this, the IRDAI says that insurance companies are still bound by Section 3 of the Act and if they have actuarial studies that support the claim of denial of health insurance coverage to people with HIV/AIDS, then they can consider extending health insurance coverage to policy holders with HIV/AIDS.

In effect, this leaves people with HIV/AIDS at the mercy of insurance companies who can take a decision to allow or deny their medical coverage.