Purpose: To investigate the level of depression and self management behavior in patients with diabetes. Method: From May to August 2004, 124 diabetic patients 18 years or older were surveyed using the Korean version of the BDI, the self-management scale by Toobert(2000) and hospital lab data for HbAl, FBS and Blood Sugar-2hr. Results: 1. Mean score on the BDI for the patients was 10.85 points. The score on the BDI was significantly higher in hyperglycemic patients than in normoglycemic patients. 2. The level of self management for the past week showed care on an average of 4.2 days. According to level of depression, patients in the normal group and patients in the mild group had significantly higher levels of self management than those in the moderate group. 3. According to level of depression, patients in the normal group had significantly lower levels of blood glucose than those in the moderate group, and for HbAlc and FBS those in the mild group had lower levels compared to those in the moderate group. 4. The factors significantly associated with level of self management were depression (25.66%) and duration of illness. Conclusion: Programs should be developed to combat depression in patients with diabetes in order to increase compliance through self care management and thus increase of blood glucose levels.