Study: Few Treatment Options For Children With Type 2 Diabetes

Now that one-third of all children in the U.S. are overweight or obese, the rate of Type 2 diabetes in kids is on the rise. That's because excess weight is a risk factor for the disease.

Adults with Type 2 diabetes can take a variety of medications as treatment. But there are only two approved drugs in the U.S. for children with the disease, and a new study of the effectiveness of those came up with discouraging findings.

One of the study's authors, Dr. David Nathan, director of the diabetes center at Massachusetts General Hospital, joined All Things Considered host Sacha Pfeiffer with details of his findings, which appear in the New England Journal of Medicine.