Diabetes insipidus historical perspective

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Omodamola Aje B.Sc, M.D. [2]

The history of diabetes insipidus dates as far back as the early 1670s, when Thomas Willis noted that there was a difference in the taste of urine produced by different patients who presented with polyuria and polydipsia. This marked the beginning of the research into the difference between the popularly known diabetes mellitus and diabetes insipidus.

• Thomas Willis was first noted the difference diabetes mellitus from diabetes insipidus in 1670.^[1]
• Johann Peter Frank was first introduced the term “diabetes insipidus“; described polyuric patients excreting nonsaccharine urine in 1794.^[1][2]
• In 1913, a historical milestone was achieved when Farini successfully used posterior pituitary extracts to treat diabetes insipidus.
• In the early 1920s the available evidence indicated that diabetes insipidus was a disorder of the pituitary gland.
• In 1928, De Lange first observed that some patients with diabetes insipidus did not respond to posterior pituitary extracts.
• In 1945, Forssman and Waring established that the kidney played a critical role in the forms of diabetes insipidus that were resistant to this treatment.
• In 1947, Williams and Henry introduced the term nephrogenic diabetes insipidus for the congenital syndrome characterized by polyuria and renal concentrating defect resistant to vasopressin.
• In 1955, du Vigneaud received the 1955 Nobel Prize in chemistry for the first synthesis of the hormone vasopressin, which represented a milestone in the development of treatment for central diabetes insipidus.^[3]