Diabulimia

From YenraWiki

Diabulimia, clinically called Dual Diagnosis, is the combination of diabetes and eating disorders. Patients withhold insulin injections-the drug they need to treat type 1 diabetes-so their bodies will pass the sugars and carbohydrates they eat without processing them. It may make them thin in the short run, but over time it can lead to increased rates of blindness, loss of limbs, kidney disease, and heart disease. The mortality rate is 33%.

Currently there is no established best-practice protocol for treatment. Patients often go back and forth between specialists in the two areas with little or no coordination. Park Nicollet Health Services has developed a comprehensive combined treatment program. They are hosting an international conference to establish new standards for treatment of eating disorders and diabetes.

On September 18-19, 2008, leaders in the fields of diabetes and eating disorders from across the U.S. and Canada will convene in Minneapolis to begin the process of setting international standards for treatment of the dual diagnosis of these two disorders. Organizers want to raise awareness, collect current best practices, define research questions and submit a peer reviewed paper to a major medical journal critically reviewing this field. They also hope to identify international centers for treatment and establish an ongoing collaborative network.

Panelists include Ovidio Bermudez, MD from the Laureate Psychiatric Hospital in Tulsa; Gary Rodin, MD from Toronto; William Polonsky, PhD, of the Behavioral Diabetes Institute at the University of California, San Diego; Patricia Colton, MD from Toronto General Hospital; Scott Crow, MD from the University of Minnesota; Ann Goebel-Fabbri, PhD, from the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston; and Juliet Zuercher, RD, from Remuda Ranch Treatment Centers in Phoenix