My 13 year old son, diagnosed with type 1 diabetes about three weeks ago, was taking Seroquel (quetiapine) for bipolar disorder for three months prior to diagnosis, and the doctors said there may be a connection between taking this medication and developing diabetes. He had a negative GAD antibody test which the doctors found hopeful. Have you heard of similar cases? If so, did the diabetes in any of those individuals reverse itself?

Some of the newer psychiatric medications have been known to cause diabetes as a possible side effect. You should discuss this with your son’s physicians and especially make sure that he is being seen in consultation by a pediatric diabetes specialist who may answer this question in more detail. You should also ask his psychiatrists if there are other alternatives to consider for his psychiatric needs.

SB

[Editor’s comment: There is an association between “atypical antipsychotic” medications (for schizophrenia and closely-related disorders) and the worsening of diabetes, and probably also the development of new-onset diabetes. See (among other articles at PubMed) Patients on Atypical Antipsychotic Drugs: Another high-risk group for type 2 diabetes. Lean ME, Pajonk FG. Diabetes Care 2003 May;26(5):1597-605.

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