Managing diabetes is an overwhelming task, particularly for the newly diagnosed patient. Many diabetics struggle to cope with the requirements of the disease and the complications that it causes. as a result, many diabetics suffer from depression which is the most common psychiatric disorder witnessed in the diabetic population.

To compare the levels the emotional states of anxiety, depression and stress in patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) to the general population and chronic patients with psychological problems.

To reveille the significant differences between those patients.

We conducted a survey in a random sample of 279 patients with diabetes Mellitus (DM), 109 psychiatric outpatients (PO) and 383 healthy adults (C), using the Depression Anxiety Stress scale (DASSI-42). Statistical analysis was conducted with SPSS 16 for windows. ANOVA test was used to reveille the statistical significance between the groups in anxiety, stress, depression and total Scale.

Patients with DM had a significant difference to the PO patients and C in anxiety (MDPO = −12.251 p < .001), (MDC = 1.303 p < .001). They also had a significant difference from the PO in stress (MDPO = −11.465 p < .001), depression (MDPO = −15.751 p < .001), and total DASS (MDPO = −39.566 p < .001). Patients with DM had no significant difference to the control group in the above domains.

Analysis shows that patient with DM who are under medical treatment experience anxiety in a greater level than the general population, but in terms of stress and depression they are in the same level to the general population.