May 18, 2018 – Diabetes Meds

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Anchor lead: What is the role of newer diabetes medicines in managing the condition? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Newer diabetes medicines use a number of acronyms to describe them, and are largely used after the first line therapy, metformin, isn’t working by itself. Now a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association makes sense of which one to use for which patient. Sherita Golden, a diabetes expert at Johns Hopkins, says the theme is clear.

Golden: We still have to individualize therapy and be very patient-centric. The findings in this study in JAMA actually support the current American Association of Diabetes guidelines so they suggest that if a patient is at risk for heart disease, consider an agent that has been shown to lower that risk, so the GLP1 analogues, the SGLT2 inhibitor. If I have a patient with diabetes who has very slow gastric emptying, not going to be using a GLP1 analogue. So I think there are enough options so you can find the one that fits with the patient’s circumstance. :32

Golden says for patients, a thorough discussion with your primary care physician is needed. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.