Association between depression and persistence with oral antihyperglycemic drugs in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients in Germany

The goal of the present work was to study the impact of depression on persistence with oral antihyperglycemic drugs in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients followed in general practices in Germany. We included T2DM patients who were treated with oral antihyperglycemic drugs and had an initial diagnosis of depression from 1262 general practices in Germany between January 2013 and December 2015. T2DM controls without depression were included and matched (1:1) to T2DM cases with depression based on age, sex, physician, and initial antihyperglycemic therapy, using a propensity score method. Persistence was estimated as therapy duration without treatment disruption, which was defined as at least 3 months without oral antihyperglycemic drugs. This study included 6449 T2DM patients with depression and 6449 T2DM patients without depression. After 12 months of follow-up, 67.5% of cases with depression and 69.7% of controls without depression were found to be persistent with oral antihyperglycemic drugs (p = 0.627). Depression had no significant impact on persistence with antihyperglycemic drugs in the entire population (HR = 1.03) or in the different subgroups (HRs ranging from 1.00 to 1.06). Depression was not significantly associated with persistence with antihyperglycemic drugs in Germany.