Tautologous Diabetic Coma—A Behavior Syndrome: Multiple Unnecessary Episodes of Diabetic Coma

Abstract

The occurrence in a single patient of almost 50 repetitive instances of severe diabetic coma within 8 years of onset of the disease at age 12 is unique. Multiple comas of reasonable number are not unusual, but we know of no reported case having so many. The term tautologous has not been previously applied to diabetic coma. It is usually employed rhetorically, but in this instance it seems especially apropos, signifying as it does “needless repetition.” The development of this behavior pattern is of special interest in relation to the effect of stressful situations on the control of diabetes and the influence of subsequent poor control on the development of vascular complications.