Depression can directly cause type 2 diabetes as it increases inflammation in vital organs, new research suggests.
Previous research has demonstrated that people with diabetes are about twice as likely to have depression. But until now it has been unclear whether depression causes type 2 diabetes, or vice versa, or whether other factors are at play.
The new study analysed health and genetic information from more than 500,000 British adults, using a statistical technique called Mendelian randomisation to determine causal effects.
This identified a clear cause-and-effect relationship between getting depression and going on to develop type 2 diabetes, but not the other way round.
