Why don’t we talk about “juvenile diabetes” and “adult-onset diabetes” anymore?
Identifying the type of diabetes by the age at onset is making less and less sense. It is no more sensible to describe the condition in terms of the treatment required (insulin dependent versus non-insulin dependent). Rather than referring to the age at onset or the method of treatment, it seems to make more sense to use terminology that identifies what is going on in a physiologic sense. However, the metabolic derangements in the two predominant types of diabetes are so complex, we are forced to use short hand. The type of diabetes that used to be identified as “juvenile diabetes” is now called Type 1 Diabetes. The type of diabetes that was formerly pegged as “adult-onset diabetes” is now designated as Type 2 Diabetes.
