Experts debate safety, uses of oral antidiabetic drugs
The question of the safety of sulfonylurea antidiabetic agents remains unresolved after heated discussion at the recent meeting of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in St. Louis.
Thaddeus E. Prout, MD, reported that diabetic patients treated with tolbutamide had a higher incidence of deaths due to cardiovascular complications than others treated with diet alone or insulin. Other physicians challenged his conclusion and in the end the ADA—at the first press conference in its history—issued a statement composed by an ad hoc scientific committee and read by Robert C. Hardin, MD, the ADA president for 1969-1970.
The statement concluded that "At this point, the evidence presented does not appear to warrant abandoning presently accepted methods of the treatment of diabetes—diet, diet with oral agents, or diet with insulin as indicated."
Dr. Prout, associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of
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