Can insulins cause mood swings? Please help!

[SnowOwl]

Hello, new here. I’m not a diabetic, am writing for my husband who is a Type 2 diabetic. My name is Helen, and I hope someone here can help clear up some concerns. This is rather long I’m afraid, but his doctor is being evasive and we’re wary of what else could happen as he tries to find some med that stabilizes his condition. Thanks for your patience.

My husband is in his 40s, in basically good shape except for his blood sugar. Diet and exercise brought down his weight and his sugars came down but not enough. So, he’s been trying various meds.

He’s tried orals (Metformin, Amaryl, Avandia) that didn’t bring his blood sugar down, and produced physical side effects that were hard on him. Two months ago he was switched to Lantus, an insulin analogue. By the end of the two month run on that, he had developed severe mood swings and insomnia. They weren’t from low blood sugar, his blood sugar remained high, the Lantus didn’t budge it down but a few points. He became emotionally unstable, had anger fits that were frightening, weepy, frustrated over simple things that wouldn’t have fazed him before the Lantus. He said it felt like he was experiencing huge adrenalin surges like he’d taken a powerful steroid, but wasn’t on a high dosage of Lantus, peaked at 38 units once a day.

He stopped the Lantus a week ago and took a break from all meds for a week. He began to feel better within a day or two, then the doctor put on Humulin. He just started Humulin 70/30, 10 units twice a day.

Has anyone else experienced such severe emotional surges while on Lantus? And should we be concerned that Humulin might produce the same sort of effect?

Any info, personal tales, advice would be very, very much appreciated! Again, sorry to be so long but thought I should put as much background in as possible. Thanks to any who read and answer!

[Mark Munday]

The reaction you describe sounds awful! I use Lantus and have found it to be very good. I haven't heard of anyone having an adverse reaction. Lantus is generally considered the best available long-acting insulin. And I would be surprised if you get any posts describing bad reactions.

I have heard of people not being able to tolerate the so-called human insulins. Humulin is also "human" insulin. I would suggest that you give it a fair chance. My biggest problem with Humulin was night-time lows. But moodswings have never been a problem. If your husband reacts badly to Humulin, you might want to try beef or pork insulin. And if that doesn't work, look for another reason for your husband's reaction.

Cheers,

Mark

[SnowOwl]

Thank you for your reply, Mark, I appreciate it. He's doing ok on the Humulin, so far so good. His blood sugar is still resisting and remaining fairly high, but he's been started on a low dosage. But, no fits of anger that blow up out nowhere and leave him shaking and upset, and he has been able to sleep.

Again, thank you for taking time to reply to a concerned "newbie". I'm glad Lantus is beneficial to the majority, I'd surely be sad to learn many others were experiencing what my spouse endured while on it. We're hopeful the Humulin may be the "magic bullet" that stabilizes his diabetes. Take care, best wishes to you.

[crazy_old_md]

Dear SnowOwl, you cannot even imagine how important it was for me to read your message. My husband is diabetic (type I) and is also on Lantus for more than 2 years now. For the last 6 months we noticed exactly the same mood swings as you described, but as we could not find any info about these particular Lantus side effects, it was really frustrating. Now we know that we are not alone and can try to persuade my husband's diabetologist to change the insulin. Thanks a lot!!!

[SamQKitty]

Snow Owl,
It's possible that the high blood sugar levels themselves are what's causing his moodiness and emotional instability. You haven't said exactly how high his blood sugars have been running, but everyone reacts differently to both highs and lows.

Now that he's started the 70/30, how are his sugars running, and how has his mood been?

Ruth