March 24, 2003
Other Social Issues
Question from Perth, Western Australia, Australia:
My partner’s almost 17 year old son, diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 18 months, has entered the age now where he and his friends are drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes and using marijuana. In the past three months, both his grandmother and father have died, which he has taken pretty badly, and I think he has been using marijuana more regularly, as a crutch to help deal with his pain.
His mother and I have tried relentlessly to tell him of the risks he is taking with his life. He has suffered from hypoglycemia on three to four occasions, and on one of these occasions he had been drinking and was hospitalized for three days. All other incidences have been treated by his mother at home. Is there anywhere I can obtain information of the effects of alcohol and drug use on people with diabetes?
Answer:
There is nice summary information in Insulin-Dependent Diabetes in Children, Adolescents and Adults, edited by Ragnar Hanas, available at this website and which any bookstore can special order. It sounds like this young man could benefit from some counseling. Perhaps posing the same questions to his diabetes health care team would let them be aware of these concerns and also let them help encourage alternatives to self-medication as well as ways to reduce risks of alcohol, marijuana, etc.
SB
