Insulatard v Levemir

[Andrew1871]

My elderly mother was given Levermir by her Chemist ( we think by mistake) and has been injecting this twice a day in the same quantities as she would Insulatard. 48 and 8 units. This continued for 3 weeks until we realised there was a problem. We have advised the pharmacist who is investigating how it could have happened. When the Levemir was supplied she queried why it was not cloudy as normal but she was told not to worry! There have been no obvious complications and she is now back on Insulutard. How concerned should we be?

 

[mentat]

It's all insulin. The different types just have somewhat different absorption rates. People sometimes develop resistance to certain types of insulin because there are slight chemical differences between them but it's very unlikely that going on a different type will do you harm. So I wouldn't be worried.

 

[noblehead]

Both insulins do exactly the same job but what a mistake to make :shock: As you say your mums been fine I don't think they'll be any lasting damage done, if your concerned have a chat with her GP or DN and ask for their advise.

It does go to show how easy it is for dispensing mistakes to happen, hope they find out what went wrong!