Abstract:Objective To investigate the association of serum adiponectin (APN) with depressive symptoms in T2DM patients. Methods Totally 523 patients with T2DM cared at Tangshan Gongren Hospital were recruited. Data including age, sex, education, duration of illness and BMI were recorded; and clinical parameters including FPG, HbA1c, TC, TG, LDL, HDL, Hcy and hsCRP were determined. APN was measured by ELISA. Depressive symptoms were assessed by the Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), then T2DM patients were divided into two groups depending on the SDS scores which were T2DM with depressive symptoms group and without depressive symptoms group. Results The prevalence rate of depression in the male T2DM patients was 36.7%; the prevalence rate of mild, medium and heavy depression was 27.5%, 7.3% and 1.9% respectively. Compared with the T2DM patients without depressive symptoms, the duration of illness was longer, and the levels of BMI, HbA1c, TG, Hcy and hsCRP were higher in the patients with depressive symptoms ; however, the level of APN was lower (P < 0.05). HDL (b = 0.452, P = 0.000), TG (b = -0.036, P = 0.018) and HbA1c (b = -0.114, P = 0.012) were the influential factors for serum APN level. APN (b = -3.128, P = 0.000), Hcy (b = 0.237, P = 0.002), the duration of illness (b = 0.243, P = 0.004) and HbA1c (b = 0.645, P = 0.018) were the influential factors for SDS scores. Conclusions Decreased serum APN may be one of the risk factors for depressive symptoms in T2DM patients.