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July 13, 2003

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Question from Colorado, USA:

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?

Answer:

From: DTeam Staff

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.

WWQ]