Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin 1999;37:84-87
Copyright © 1999 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.

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Reducing long-term complications of type 2 diabetes

Many patients with type 2 (late-onset; non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus present with no symptoms, or become asymptomatic once treatment is started. Consequently, the condition is often regarded as trivial. In reality, the long-term outlook is poor, with 30% of patients developing one or more clinical complications within 10 years of diagnosis.¹ Such complications include macrovascular disease (e.g. myocardial infarction, stroke), microvascular disease (e.g. retinopathy, nephropathy) and neuropathy. In this article, we examine the role of hypoglycaemic, antihypertensive and lipid-lowering drugs in preventing these complications.