Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, suggest that clinicians need to do a better job of discussing low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) with patients with diabetes, especially those who are on insulin.
Hypoglycemia is one of the common complications of diabetes. Patients with severe hypoglycemia may experience dizziness, rapid heartbeat, shakiness, sweating, confusion, and increased hunger. These symptoms can lead to falls and ED visits. They may also increase the risk of stroke and death.
Lead author Dr. Scott Pilla said, “For patients to have safe diabetes treatment, there needs to be open communication between them and their health care provider about medication side effects, especially hypoglycemia.”
The researchers found that 12% of diabetes patients who participated in a 2018 survey had experienced severe hypoglycemia within the previous year, according to Medicine Net.
Dr. Pilla and his team looked at 83 PCP visits by 33 diabetic patients who took insulin or oral hypoglycemic drugs (OHAs), such as glipizide (Glucotrol) and glyburide (Glynase).
The team found that hypoglycemic and how to prevent it came up in less than one-quarter of those visits, according to Medicine Net. They said patients were concerned about the complication, but doctors rarely checked its frequency and severity or how it affected patients’ quality of life.
Dr. Pilla said, “For example, we found in our study that clinicians almost never counseled against driving a car if a patient thinks his or her blood sugar is low or may become low. This is an important discussion to have because low blood sugar could cause a person to think unclearly and have an accident.”
The researchers published their findings in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
“Primary care clinicians should work together with patients to figure out how to best prevent low blood sugar episodes and choose the safest diabetes treatment,” Dr. Pilla said. The article was published Sunday on Medicine Net.
