MedPage Today published an article about a Danish Cohort study finding that Metformin is safer than many of the most commonly used drugs to treat Type 2 diabetes. The study found that the medications Glimepiride, Glibenclamide, Glipizide, and Tolbutamide were associated with an increased risk of death compared with Metformin. The research was conducted by Copenhagen University Hospital, and was published in the European Heart Journal.
Metformin is currently the primary drug of choice in treating type 2 diabetes, but its long-term cardiovascular safety and effectiveness compared with other insulin secretagogues ((Glimepiride, Glibenclamide, Glipizide, or Tolbutamide) is ambiguous. The research team looked at Danish patients given an insulin secretagogue or Metformin between 1997 and 2006. The data included 107,806 patients who were followed up with for up to 9 years.
According to MedPage Today, the overall findings of the study were that compared with Metformin, all insulin secretagogues were associated with a higher risk of all-cause mortality. The researchers cautioned that “the observation of less benefit with most sulfonylureas in the study compared with Metformin should not be interpreted as causing harm,” as Metformin has a risk reduction of about 40% for major cardiac adverse events. Rather, the results simply suggest that “some drugs may be better than others with regard to the outcomes assessed.”
You can view MedPage Today’s article here.
Weight Loss Studies & Clinical