June 24, 2007
Research: Other Research
Question from San Francisco, California, USA:
I’ve read many of your questions/answers related to ADHD and diabetes. Given that dopamine affects many bodily functions, as well as those controlled by the brain, I’m wondering how your team can be so confident that there is no relationship between ADHD, dopamine, and insulin levels. My guess is that this is a cross-disciplinary area that has never even been studied. So, if there is no literature that discusses this, perhaps your answers should be less definitive. I suspect the jury is not in on this subject or has even been gathered.
Answer:
With each of the pediatric diabetology experts probably having experience with 5000 to 10000 diabetes patients, we would likely know about such associations even if the science behind understanding them were not known. So, while nobody can be very definitive, the simple fact is that there are no large associations known. Contrast this to known associations of short stature, delayed puberty, decreased appetite, sleep disturbances, tics, etc.
SB
