Table 1.

Pros and cons of diabetes therapies

	Metformin	Sulphonylurea	TZDs	Acarbose	Insulin	DPP-4 inhibitors	Incretin mimetics
Efficacy	++	++	++	+	+++	++ (+)	++
Influence on disease progression	No	No	(?)	No	No	(?)	(?)
Cardiovascular outcome studies	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Tolerability	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate	Poor	Moderate	Very good	Moderate
Weight gain	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Weight loss
Hypoglycaemia in monotherapy use	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No (Yes with sulphonyl-urea or insulin)	No (Yes with sulphonyl-urea or insulin)