Abstract
A 35-year-old man with depression and diabetes mellitus was admitted to our department following a suicide attempt in which he subcutaneously injected himself with 300 IU of insulin glargine. We closely monitored the patient's glucose level and administered oral/intravenous glucose as needed, and he subsequently recovered from hypoglycemia approximately 50 hours after admission. He was also found to have hearing loss, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and a mutation in the mitochondrial DNA at nucleotide position 3243, thereby fulfilling the diagnostic criteria for mitochondrial disease. Clinically, both the patient's diabetes mellitus and depression were considered to be caused by this underlying disease. In the present report, we discuss the possible role of mitochondrial disease in the present case as well as the appropriate management of insulin overdoses and issues regarding concurrent depression in diabetic patients.
