Le diabète de type 1 « post-traumatique » existe-t-il ?

Physical and/or psychological traumas might trigger an onset of type 1 diabetes. Personal injury indemnity specialists recognize that, in rare and strict criteria cases, post-traumatic diabetes can manifest within a short timeframe and without any indication of a pre-diabetic existence. The scientific literature is ambiguous, neither affirming nor denying that stress might facilitate the onset of this disease. There is, in fact, a great heterogeneity of findings in term of incidence of stress episodes among those who become diabetic. In addition, according to various studies, the stress occurs either within the 12 months preceding the diagnosis or in the perinatal period. The role of a recent stress is not apparent in geographic areas with a high prevalence of type 1 diabetes (Scandinavia), while it seems more apparent in lower risk areas (Southern Europe). Given this data, and if a post-traumatic diabetes does indeed exists, then the role of stress can only be considered as “hypothetical, partial and indirect”. This scientific conclusion is, however, not compatible with what one expects to be an expert's non-ambiguous reply. The expert diabetologist is thus torn between evidence-based, objective (albeit probabilistic) reasoning, and a personal, subjectively based affirmation.