Gemfibrozil in a group of diabetics.

A group of 14 diabetic patients was treated with gemfibrozil during a variable length of time ranging from nine to 23 weeks in order to establish if a lowering effect on the cholesterol and triglyceride levels could be achieved, as it had been in the case of another group of non-diabetic patients. The present results showed that: (1) The drug is remarkably well tolerated. (2) With doses ranging between 400 and 800 mg per day the magnitude of the effect of the drug was less than that observed in our previous trial with non-diabetic subjects. The effect upon triglycerides seemed to be reduced more than that upon cholesterol when compared with results in higher-dose studies. (3) In this group of diabetic patients (3 insulin dependent, 11 maturity-onset type) control of the diabetic condition was never impaired and appeared in some cases to be slightly improved by gemfibrozil. (4) There was no evidence of undesirable interaction with any of the anti-diabetic drugs used.