Abstract : Depression is a risk factor for diabetes, and people with diabetes mellitus are more probably to be depressed. Thus, depression may negatively affect diabetes management and increase the possibility of complications. The objectives are to assess depressive symptoms among type 2 diabetic patients. and to study the influence of some demographic and clinical characteristics on depression. A retrospective cohort study was conducted in Baghdad city capital of Iraq at the national diabetes center in Baghdad. The data was collected from the 1st of February to the1st of July 2018, 100 diabetic patients (43 males and 57 females) and 150 non diabetic subjects of comparable age and sex. (75 males and 75 females), A structured questionnaire was used for collecting data about the socio-demographic characteristics and disease characteristics while depressive symptoms were assessed by using Beck depression scale-II, then analysis of data was carried out using the available (Statistical Packages for Social Sciences- version 25). Depressive symptoms were significantly associated with the presence of diabetes mellitus type 2 with a proportion of (17%). being female was significantly associated with the development of depression with a proportion of (24.6%)