A study at the University of Texas's Southwestern Medical Centre headed by assistant professor of internal medicine Dr Ildiko Lingvay has shown that it may be time to include insulin in the first line treatment of type 2 diabetes instead of leaving it as the treatment of last resort. Currently most doctors when faced with a newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patient start with exercise and weight loss and if medication is needed the patient is given the drug metformin, which regulates the level of sugar in the blood and a variety of other hypoglycaemic agents. Doctors only put patients on insulin, which must be injected or inhaled, as a last resort. The results of the ongoing study will appear in a future issue of Diabetes Care.
The study was started with 58 newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients ranging in age from 21 to 70 years old. For the first three weeks of treatment all were given treatment with insulin and metformin. After the three weeks, they were divided with one group given a traditional first line treatment and the second group given insulin and metformin.
