Controversy... Insulin or Oral Medication Which is Better?

 We live in a time where obesity and living a sedentary lifestyle go hand in hand. Now healthcare providers are expected to have more of their pregnant patients dealing with gestational diabetes.  As a result, researchers have looked toward standard management for gestational diabetes and why this standard care might not work accordingly or better yet, is there something better out there.  The pharmaceutical companies are all about making money and this is why there are different treatments and medications for every illness (Angell, 2005).  This is why there has been a drive to understanding the effectiveness and safety of oral diabetes medications on both mother and child.  According to Nicholson and Baptiste-Roberts (2010) the studies that utilize oral medication to treat gestational diabetes need to focus more on procedure and dose since there is not a consensus within the literature over whether insulin or oral medications such as metformin and glyburide are better to treat gestational diabetes.  What is known however, is that oral medications does work, but not specifics regarding dose requirements (Nicholson & Baptiste-Roberts, 2010).  Moreover, we cannot access what this plays on the child until after birth. These researchers also suggest that outcome measures need consistency in data collection to have valid conclusions.

References
Angell, M. (2005). The truth about the drug companies: How they deceive us and what to do about it. Random House LLC.

Nicholson, W., & Baptiste-Roberts, K. (2011). Oral hypoglycaemic agents during pregnancy: the evidence for effectiveness and safety. Best Practice & Research Clinical Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 25(1), 51-63.