Psychosocial childbearing stress and metabolic control in pregnant diabetics

• Published in: The journal of nervous and mental disease Vol. 173; no. 10; p. 615
• Main Authors: Barglow, P, Hatcher, R, Berndt, D, Phelps, R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-10-1985
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Adolescent; Adult; Blood Glucose - analysis; Body Weight; Circadian Rhythm; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 - blood; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 - metabolism; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 - urine; Female; Glycated Hemoglobin A - analysis; Humans; Ketone Bodies - urine; Life Change Events; Marriage; Pregnancy; Pregnancy in Adolescence; Pregnancy in Diabetics - blood; Pregnancy in Diabetics - metabolism; Pregnancy in Diabetics - urine; Stress, Psychological - blood; Stress, Psychological - metabolism; Stress, Psychological - urine
• ISSN: 0022-3018
• DOI: 10.1097/00005053-198510000-00007

The authors tested the relationship between psychosocial childbearing stress factors and metabolic control in a research sample of 39 pregnant insulin-dependent diabetic women. Subjects were selected using rigorous exclusion criteria from a population of more than 200 pregnant diabetic patients assessed in a University National Institutes of Health Center. Metabolic control was determined by plasma levels of preprandial day, night, and early morning fasting glucose, urinary ketones, and glycosylation of hemoglobin. Differences in plasma glucose concentrations and urinary ketone levels at several times during the day and night were associated with psychosocial stress factors. A similar relationship between stress and levels of diabetic control could not be demonstrated by hemoglobin A1 assay, a result contradicting most prior studies of adolescent populations. These findings are compatible with a biopsychosocial model of diabetes mellitus and emphasize the importance of using several different measures of diabetic control to determine stress-control relationships.