There are numerous of mechanisms by which psychological dysfunction follows physical illness. They include the disturbing subjective meaning of the illness and its manifestations for the patient, impairment of the patient's capacity to cope with the needs and goals, impairment of ability to meet the demands of sexual, social and economic roles.

Symptoms of depression frequently occur in patients with diabetes and depression in the medically ill frequently goes undetected and untreated. The presence of depression is particularly problematic because depression is often associated with somatic symptoms that overlap with or resemble symptoms of diabetes. The challenge of diagnosing depression in diabetic patients is complicated by neurovegetative symptoms.

These patients resist the notion of emotional distress, substituting in its place various physical complaints.

The aims of the present study are to explore the psychopathology that occurs in patients with diabetes to study in depth their psychiatric profile.

Sixty patients mean age 61.6 SD = 17.01 suffered from Diabetes. There was a comparison group of sixty healthy volunteers.

The psychometric measurements employed were:

Hostility was examined by the hostility and direction of hostility questionnaire [HDHQ].

Psychiatric symptomatology was evaluated by the symptom –check-list-90-R [SCL-90-R] and the Delusions Symptoms Inventory / State of Anxiety and Depression, [DSSI / SAD].

The Diabetes patients reported significantly more symptoms of Somatization that the non-patients.

The patients with diabetes show significantly higher levels of paranoid hostility and Criticism of others.

The diabetes patients show significantly higher levels of introverted extroverted and total hostility than the healthy.