Insulin is used to treat various forms of diabetes, including:

• Type 1 diabetes. Patients with this condition are unable to create insulin, and depend on insulin injections in order to survive.
  
  
• Type 2 diabetes. Patients with this condition have cells that are resistant to insulin. Over time, this insulin resistance can lead to a drop in insulin production. Sometimes, changes in diet and exercise can control the condition by themselves. In other cases, antidiabetic agents and/or insulin therapy may be necessary to keep glucose (blood sugar) levels normal or near normal.
  
  
• Gestational diabetes. High glucose levels that can occur during pregnancy in previously nondiabetic women. Some women with this condition may need to use insulin to control their glucose levels and to avoid health problems. Pregnant women generally are not prescribed antidiabetic agents.
  
  
• Latent autoimmune diabetes of adulthood (LADA). Nearly half of patients with LADA, which is generally categorized as a subtype of type 1 diabetes, need to take insulin within four years of diagnosis.
  
  
• Maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY). Insulin may be prescribed to patients with this rare genetic disease, which is sometimes considered a subtype of type 2 diabetes.
  
  
• Wolfram syndrome. This rare genetic disorder involves insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, diabetes insipidus, deafness and damage to the optic nerves.