Novel therapies for diabetes mellitus in pregnancy

Abstract

Diabetes is a common complication of pregnancy, and the prevalence of all types of the disease is increasing worldwide. Diabetes in pregnancy is associated with short term and long term adverse effects for mother and child. The goal of treatment of diabetes in pregnancy is to minimize maternal and fetal adverse events related to hyperglycemia. Treatment options vary by type of diabetes, from a focus on lifestyle modifications in gestational diabetes to continuous glucose monitoring and insulin pumps in pregestational diabetes. Nevertheless, given the commonality of hyperglycemia, considerable overlap exists in the treatment of different types of diabetes in pregnancy. Also, despite ongoing research on treatment of diabetes in pregnancy for decades, changes in the characteristics of the patient population have highlighted the limited effectiveness of different therapies. Specifically, despite the co-occurrence of obesity and diabetes, treatment recommendations including glycemic targets are not altered in such cases and a single optimal treatment strategy for each type of diabetes in pregnancy does not seem to exist. Rather, the approach to treating pregnant women with diabetes likely needs to be individualized to maximize the short term and long term health of mother and child. This article will review recent clinical studies to summarize established treatment strategies and introduce novel therapies for diabetes in pregnancy.