Insulin alone for type 2 diabetes?
| Author : Pierre Allain |
Date : 2012-5-2 |
Insulin is the drug for type 1 diabetes mellitus but it can also be used in type 2 diabetes, often in combination with metformin.
A meta-analysis published on April 19th, 2012 in the BMJ compared in type 2 diabetes patients the treatment with insulin plus metformin versus insulin alone.
The general conclusion of the paper is that treatment with metformin plus insulin did not reduce, compared to insulin alone, overall mortality nor cardiovascular mortality but it lowered a little more the level of glycated hemoglobin and induced a lesser weight gain.
The preceding results are not sufficient to change the ongoing treatments but can encourage to question about the systematic use of many drugs.
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