sulphonylureas

[kentishman]

I read in the papers today that sulphonylureas increase your chance of dying by 60%.
Gliclacide, which I take is included. Makes you wonder if the drug is worse than the disease

 

[Patch]

I take Gliclazide - I hate it. It's slowly destroying the pancreas. The sooner I can get off it and onto Byetta/Victosa the better.

 

[ham79]

with the side affects I only lasted a fortnight they were horrible

 

[hanadr]

I've ditched Gliclazide too.
Hana

 

[cugila]

Well, because of an unrelated condition I am having to take Gliclazide at various times throughout the day. I'm finding it is helping me control my errant Bg numbers which would otherwise be totally out of control. I have no side effects from the Glic and hopefully I won't need their help for too long. As far as I am concerned it is fine and is certainly not 'burning out' my Pancreas. A necessary evil for now.

 

[graham64]

This is from the research paper:

Conclusions and clinical implications
The sulphonylureas, along with metformin, have long been considered the mainstay of drug treatment for type 2 diabetes. Our findings suggest a relatively unfavourable risk profile of sulphonylureas compared with metformin.

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/339/dec03_1/b4731

Graham

 

[cugila]

A response to this article from a GP.

Pioglitazone was launched in 2000 . It seems unlikely to have been widely used till 2002-03. Yet this study ran from 1990 till 2005. During this period mortality from vascular disease fell sharply by about a third.

This study is confounded by this effect of time , the pioglitazione treatment group is a different temporally cohort from the other treatment cohorts. Has this been considered in the analysis ? Could a re-analysis of all the data from only 2000 onwards be done ? Also, this might account for the negative outcome of Sulphonylureas which during the 1990s were the most widely used medications but then fell from favour. Observation is not always causation.

 

[kentishman]

I have been taking Gliclacide for many years with no side effects but it is worrying to read such articles.The only thing I have against it is weight gain.
I am fed up with reading scares and so-called treatment break throughs in the papers.They trumpet a cure for a certain illness and when you read it is a remote possibility in ten years time.It must be heart breaking for people with terminal illnesses.

 

[cugila]

I have been taking Gliclacide for many years with no side effects but it is worrying to read such articles.The only thing I have against it is weight gain.
I am fed up with reading scares and so-called treatment break throughs in the papers.They trumpet a cure for a certain illness and when you read it is a remote possibility in ten years time.It must be heart breaking for people with terminal illnesses.

You are certainly right about the scare stories, often without much foundation. I too was on Gliclazide for years with no side effects and a definite improvement in Bg levels. I prefer to read the story, digest it, then usually file it away in the maybe drawer......it looks like a dustbin. :lol: