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There's another diabetes in town, here's how to recognise it

BBC Science Focus

November 2025

Misdiagnosis rates for this rare type of diabetes could be complicating treatment for patients

There's another diabetes in town, here's how to recognise it

You might be surprised to learn that there are more than two types of diabetes. We're all familiar with types 1 and 2, but you may have seen another one type 1.5 making headlines recently.

Type 1.5 diabetes, or latent autoimmune diabetes in adults (LADA) to use its official name, is not a new form of diabetes, but it is somewhat rare. It's been medically recognised as a distinct form of diabetes since 1993 and accounts for 3-12 per cent of all cases of diabetes in adults.

But as LADA shares similarities with its two, more famous, cousins, it's also trickier to identify. Hence, it's often misdiagnosed. As many as 14 per cent of people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes may actually have LADA, which is why it's been in the headlines of late.

Like type 1 and 2 diabetes, LADA is classed as a disorder of too much sugar, or glucose, in the blood.

When this occurs, it doesn't matter what kind of diabetes you have, the symptoms remain the same: extreme thirst, frequent visits to the toilet, fatigue and unexplained weight loss. Diabetes UK, the leading UK charity for the disease, describe these as 'the four Ts': thirst, toilet, tired and thinner.

"The onset of LADA is therefore more similar to type 2 diabetes"

Once these symptoms appear, it's important to seek a diagnosis as soon as possible. Untreated diabetes can lead to a host of severe complications, impacting the kidneys, eyes and feet, as well as the nerve cells in your body.

But if the symptoms for these diseases are all the same, how can experts tell which kind of diabetes you really have? And how does it affect the way you treat it?