ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews all available oral hypoglycaemics, their mechanism of action, side effects, advantages and disadvantages as well as relative cost. The reader is alerted to the fact that each class of oral medication targets a different pathophysiological mechanism, introducing the idea that medical management for diabetes should be guided by the patient’s underlying pathophysiology. Choice of medical management should also be influenced by extra-glycaemic effects that may reduce long-term complications, contribution to cardiovascular risk reduction, medication safety profiles, tolerability, expense and patient choice. Recognising this need to individualise treatment has resulted in management guidelines becoming less prescriptive.
