Factitious hypoglycemia in children and adolescents with diabetes

Factitious hypoglycemia is a condition of self-induced hypoglycemia due to surreptitious administration of insulin or oral hypoglycemic agents. In adults, it is an uncommon, but well known clinical entity observed in individuals with and without diabetes.

To report a case of factitious hypoglycemia highlighting diagnostic pitfalls, to identify common characteristics of children and adolescents with factitious hypoglycemia, and to examine whether the information on long-term outcome exists.

We present a case of an adolescent with type 1 diabetes who had self-induced hypoglycemia of several years' duration; and we conducted a systematic literature review on factitious hypoglycemia in pediatric patients with diabetes.

We identified a total of 83 articles of which 14 met the inclusion criteria (describing 39 cases). All but 1 individual had type 1 diabetes and the majority was female (63%). Average age was 13.5 ± 2.0 years with the youngest patient presenting at the age 9.5 years. Blood glucose control was poor (hemoglobin A1c: 12.1 ± 4.0%). In 35%, psychiatric disorders were mentioned as contributing factors. Only 3 reports provided follow-up beyond 6 months.

Factitious hypoglycemia typically occurs in adolescents with type 1 diabetes who use insulin to induce hypoglycemia. Awareness of this differential diagnosis and knowledge of potentially misleading laboratory results may facilitate earlier recognition and intervention. Little information exists on effective treatments and long-term outcome.