Changing the name of diabetes insipidus: a position statement of The Working Group for Renaming Diabetes Insipidus.

Abstract

'What's in a name? That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet' (Juliet, from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare). Shakespeare's implication is that a name is nothing but a word, and it therefore represents a convention with no intrinsic meaning. While this may be relevant to romantic literature, disease names do have real meanings, and consequences, in medicine. Hence, there must be a very good rationale for changing the name of a disease that has a centuries-old historical context. A working group of representatives from national and international endocrinology, and pediatric endocrine societies now proposes changing the name of 'diabetes insipidus' to 'arginine vasopressin deficiency (AVP-D)' for central etiologies, and 'arginine vasopressin resistance (AVP-R)' for nephrogenic etiologies. This article provides both the historical context and the rationale for this proposed name change.

• Authors: Working Group for Renaming Diabetes Insipidus, Hiroshi Arima, Timothy Cheetham, Mirjam Christ-Crain, Deborah Cooper, Mark Gurnell, Juliana B Drummond, Miles Levy, Ann I McCormack, Joseph Verbalis, John Newell-Price, John A H Wass
• Journal: Endocrine connections (Endocr Connect) Vol. 11 Issue 11 (Nov 01 2022) ISSN: 2049-3614 [Print] England
• PMID: 36228658 (Publication Type: Journal Article)