101 years ago, Frederick Bantinga and Charles Besta discovered insulin. It was one of the greatest achievements in medicine of the 20th century which has helped to save over half a billion lives and the figure is constantly on the rise. Diabetes mellitus, once a fatal disease,  has turned into a chronic disease thanks to the successfully isolated hormone.

Clinical Trials Unit Medical University of Lodz coordinates the national clinical trial LAMAinDiab, which gives young, insulin-dependent people a chance for their therapy to be improved. The trial is focused on paediatric patients with ADHD and type 1 diabetes.

Basic management od Diabetes Type 1 necessarily involves the patients themselves who should know how to take care of their eating habits, to control their glucose level and manage the proper dosage of insulin. In ADHD patients, their performance of all the additional activities throughout the day is often a challenge, which results in poor control of their glucose level and more frequent hospitalisation and diabetes complications as a consequence. What’s more, research shows that the incidence of ADHD is higher in diabetes patients than in general population.

Alas, the optimal treatment of patients with ADHD and type 1 diabetes is yet to be designed. Admittedly, new technologies such as subcutaneous sensors od insulin pumps do help to manage diabetes more easily but they are not always sufficient to guarantee optimal treatment.

In LAMAinDiab clinical trial  we focus on  the integrated psychotherapeutic and educational intervention for young patients with diagnosed  type 1 diabetes and ADHD. The project is conducted in cooperation between 4 paediatric diabetes centres in Poland (located in Łódź, Gdańsk, Katowice and Opole). The randomised crossover clinical trial will include 150 people which accounts for one third of all the diagnosed paediatric cases in Poland. The intervention within the project will apply Elvanse®, a modern solution which, despite being authorized and available in Europe, is still not widely used in Poland in ADHD treatment.

We hope that comprehensive care and modern therapeutic solutions will provide the insight into the recommended mode of treatment for the special group of patients with type 1 diabetes and concomitant ADHD. The outcomes may not only be significant for Poland but may also contribute globally for treatment recommendations, which may modify and facilitate diabetes treatment for over 200,000 people in the longer run, underlines assoc. prof. Agnieszka Butwicka, the leader in LAMAinDiab project.

The project, where Medical University of Lodz is the leader, is funded by Medical Research Agency in the call for non-commercial clinical trials in psychiatry and neurology, ABM/2021/2.

More information on the project on: https://lamaindiab.umed.pl