Treatments Available for Pre-Diabetes, Assessment Example

Introduction

The focus of my research project this semester is the current treatments available for pre-diabetes and diabetes miletus.  I chose this topic for two reasons: 1) The obvious impact on public health as the incidence rates increases annually in the general population; 2) The novel and innovative pharmacological therapies being developed to treat this disease.

Literature Review

First Article

In “Overcoming Challenges in Type 2 diabetes management to improve outcomes”, Brown and LeRoth,(2010), two medical doctors, conduct a literature review spanning four years (Jannuary 2006-January 2010) in order to identify the challenges facing the health care system in reaching individual glycemic targets.  Overall, the article does not put forth any new research findings or statistical analyses; instead, the article covers past literature to identify factors critical to treating diabetes miletus and drugs that can be prescribed to treat the disease.  The researchers found that “clinical inertia” is an important obstacle to properly targeting glycemic levels in individuals; new strategies can be tried such as physician-patient agreements to reach goals and to intensify treatment when unmet goals are realized (Brown &LeRoth, 2010). In addition the use of combination therapy can also be used as an effective pharmacological treatment.

Second Article

In “Prediabetes: a position statement from the Australian Diabetes Society and Australian Diabetes Educators Association,” Twigg et al. provide a framework in how to treat pre-diabetes.  Overall, the article does not put forth any new research findings; rather, the article is mainly a synthesis of existing research in the diagnosis, treatment of pre-diabetes as a precursor of diabetes miletus.  Overall, the researchers suggest a more aggressive approach to treating the disease using both greater attention to pre-diabetes symptoms and more aggressive pharmacological treatments (Twigg, Kamp, Davis, Neylon& Flack, 2007)

Third Article

In “Low-dose combination therapy with rosiglitazone and metformin to prevent type 2 diabetes mellitus (CANOE trial): a double-blind randomised controlled study,” Zinman et al. provide findings on a number of interventions used to manage glycemic levels in individuals. The research methodology of the study was the randomized control clinical trial.  The sample for the controlled clinical trial was taken from numerous sites worldwide; the clinical study used ACOVA and t-tests for various outcomes.  Overall the study found that a combined therapeutic cocktail with rositazone and metformin was highly effective in the prevention of type two diabetes for individuals with impaired glucose tolerance (Zinman, Harris, Neuman, Gerstein, 2010).  There were no obvious examples of confounding in this paper.

Conclusion

Overall, the third article seemed to yield the most meaning and valid results because it was a clinical study that focused on evaluating the efficacy of new treatments.  While previous research was conducted evaluating the two drugs, this was a wider study that helped to form consensus on potential treatments for pre-diabetes.  In contrast, the first and second articles were largely literature reviews that focused on synthesizing existing articles on the topic of how to treat diabetes miletus.

References

Brown, M.T. &Leroith, D. (2010), Overcoming challenges in Type 2 diabetes management to improve patient outcomes. Expert Review of Endocrinology&Metabloism. 5(5), 741-748.

Twigg, S.M., Kamp, M.C., Davis, T.D., Neylon, E.K. & Flack, J.R. (2007). Prediabetes: a position statement from the Australian Diabetes Society and Australian Diabetes Educators Association.  Medical Journal of Australia. 186(9): 461-466.

Zinman, B., Harris, S.B., Neuman, J., Gerstein, H.C. (2010). Low-dose combination therapy with rosiglitazone and metformin to prevent type 2 diabetes mellitus (CANOE trial): a double-blindrandomised controlled study. Lancet 376 (9735), 103-112.

Brown, M.T. &Leroith, D. (2010)  Overcoming challenges in Type 2 diabetes management to improve patient outcomes. Expert Review of Endocrinology&Metabloism. 5(5), 741-748.

Introduce your paper by noting which topic you have been researching for the SLP. the title of the article who did the research the research procedure or design where and how the sample was obtained what procedures the research entailed a description of the results any confounding factors

In the final paragraph of your paper, discuss which of your research studies seems to yield the most meaningful and valid results, and which seems to be the weakest or most questionable. Be sure to explain why think so, using the information you have learned in this course.

Assignment should be approximately 2 pages in length (double-spaced).

Please use major sections corresponding to the major points of the assignment, and where appropriate use sub-sections (with headings).