The cost of diabetic neuropathy

Little information is available as to the exact financial cost of the clinical features of diabetic neuropathy. At least 20% of diabetic patients have a neuropathic problem consisting of either sensory pain and discomfort, foot ulceration or impotence. This represents a large load of clinical work in any diabetes service. Such patients should be offered thorough and sympathetic clinical facilities, from careful diagnosis and assessment through to treatment and counselling, to allow them to accept, and hopefully obtain improvement in, what is essentially an incurable clinical situation. Similarly, the emotional and financial costs to the patients of such a chronic condition have not been adequately assessed. It seems reasonable to suggest that such costs are high, and it is a general impression that patients with this problem do not receive adequate time and attention in many busy diabetes services.