Impaired awareness of hypoglycemia is common in type 1 diabetes (T1DM) patients. Impaired
hypoglycemia awareness increases severe hypoglycemia risk by six-fold. Severe hypoglycemia
compromises quality of life and can potentially cause death. The long-term goal of this pilot
study is to lead to the development of novel therapeutic approaches to improve hypoglycemia
awareness and thus prevent severe hypoglycemia development in T1DM population with impaired
awareness of hypoglycemia.
It is hypothesized that propranolol will improve hypoglycemia recognition in T1DM. The
specific aims of the study are to determine whether propranolol treatment improves subjects'
recognition of hypoglycemic episodes, and improves hypoglycemic awareness scores; whether
propranolol favorably increases hypoglycemia blood glucose nadir, decreases
onset-to-treatment/recovery time (i.e. hypoglycemia duration), and reduces
hypoglycemia/severe hypoglycemia frequency; and, whether propranolol reduces fear of
hypoglycemia and improves overall blood glucose control.