Discontinuing drugs endangers diabetics

The simple message for diabetics is take your medicine and keep taking it, according to research presen ted at this year's congress of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. An extensive study of 1.9 million patient records showed that a remarkably high number of patients, taking tablets for type two diabetes - the type which does not require insulin shots - either discontinued or intermittently stopped taking their medication. About 50 per cent of patients on one glucose-lowering drug did not refill their prescriptions, and a quarter of patients stopped taking another type.

Yet individuals who discontinued were three times more likely to die and almost twice as likely to need emergency treatment in hospital than those who continued their treatments.