Anxiety and diabetes: Innovative approaches to management in primary care

Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a chief concern for patients, healthcare providers, and health care systems in America, and around the globe. Individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus exhibit clinical and subclinical symptoms of anxiety more frequently than people without diabetes. Anxiety is traditionally associated with poor metabolic outcomes and increased medical complications among those with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Collaborative care models have been utilized in the multidisciplinary treatment of mental health problems and chronic disease, and have demonstrated success in managing the pathology of depression which often accompanies diabetes. However, no specific treatment model has been published that links the treatment of anxiety to the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Given the success of collaborative care models in treating depression associated with diabetes, and anxiety unrelated to chronic disease, it is possible that the collaborative care treatment of primary care patients who suffer from both anxiety and diabetes could be met with the same success. The key issue is determining how to implement and sustain these models in practice. This review summarizes the proposed link between anxiety and diabetes, and offers an innovative and evidence-based collaborative care model for anxiety and diabetes in primary care.