The Psychological Implications of Patients with Diabetes on their Spouse: A Review

Abstract

Type 2 diabetes and its management pose a heavy burden for patients and their caregivers causing psychological distress. T2DM often accompanied by life-long treatment regimens and further complications can lead to disability or even death, thus have a serious impact on quality of life for patients and their families. The interaction between patient and family, especially spouse involvement promotes treatment adherence and overall chronic illness self-management of partners. Despite, the positive role of spouse, T2DM management cause marital stress as their non-diabetic partners are also exposed to the same emotional and psychological worries as their counterparts. Besides, partners of people with type 2 diabetes experience severe psychological distress including depression, anxiety, and feeling of isolation, guilt, frustration and anger. The purpose of this review was to summarize the published studies on the psychological implications that T2DM would have on their spouse