Type 2 diabetes
Intended for healthcare professionals
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Type 2 diabetes

Mary MacKinnon Consultant, Primary Care Diabetes UK (PCD UK) and the British Diabetic Association, Centre for Primary Health Care Studies, University of Warwick

Type 2 diabetes can cause blindness, kidney failure and peripheral neuropathy, and is associated with premature death. Mary MacKinnon reviews this complex major disease and describes new treatments that are due to be licensed in the UK in the coming year.

This article is intended to increase the nurse’s understanding of the medical and clinical importance of type 2 diabetes. It explains how the disease differs from type 1 diabetes, and then outlines two major treatment strategies used for type 2; one for the over-weight patient and one for the patient of normal weight. In its concluding section, the article then introduces a new class of drug, the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) agonists, also called thiazolidinediones or glitazones. PPARγ agonists are currently undergoing long-term clinical trials as therapy for type 2 diabetes. After reading this article you should be able to:

Nursing Standard. 14, 10, 39-45. doi: 10.7748/ns1999.11.14.10.39.c2715

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