One-third of diabetic teen girls at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children often skip their insulin injections to lose weight, according to researchers at the hospital. Psychiatrist Gary Rodin and his colleagues discovered that skipping insulin presents a greater threat than other eating disorders, which are common among diabetic teen-agers. Eighty-six percent of the girls they studied who underdosed themselves had early stages of diabetic retinopathy, a severe eye condition which can lead to blindness. Although teen-agers with diabetes usually gain about ten pounds when they start taking insulin, diabetics are often already underweight because of their medical condition. Rodin said group counseling sessions for the girls and their parents help prevent the diabetics from skipping their insulin shots.
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