Conventional insulinotherapy

Conventional insulinotherapy is a therapeutic regimen for treatment of diabetes mellitus which contrasts with the newer intensive insulinotherapy.

This older method (prior to the development home blood glucose monitoring) is still in use in a proportion of cases.

Conventional insulin therapy has these characteristics:

• Insulin injections of a mixture of rapid and intermediate acting insulin are performed two or three times daily.
• Meals are scheduled to match the anticipated peaks in the insulin profiles.
• The target range for blood glucose levels is higher than is desired in the intensive regimen.
• Frequent measurements of blood glucose levels were not used.

The down side of this method is that it is difficult to achieve as good results of glycemic control as with intensive insulinotherapy. The advantage is that, for diabetics with a regular lifestyle, the regime is less intrusive than the intensive therapy.