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

The 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

doi:10.1507/endocrj.EJ20220831

POSITION STATEMENT

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

The 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

Author information

The Working Group for Renaming Diabetes Insipidus
Hiroshi Arima
Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya 466-8550, Japan
Japan Endocrine Society
Timothy Cheetham
Paediatric Endocrinology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU UK
Paediatric Endocrinology, Great North Children’s Hospital (GNCH), Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4LP, UK
European Society for Pediatric Endocrinology
Mirjam Christ-Crain
Department of Endocrinology, University Hospital Basel, University of Basel, CH-4031 Basel, Switzerland
European Society of Endocrinology
Deborah Cooper
Pituitary Foundation, Bristol BS15BB, UK
Mark Gurnell
European Society of Endocrinology
Wellcome-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge & Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, UK
Juliana B Drummond
Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG-CEP 31270-901, Brazil
Brazilian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism
Miles Levy
Department of Endocrinology, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicester, LE3 9QP UK
Society for Endocrinology
Ann I McCormack
Department of Endocrinology, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia
Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia
St Vincent’s Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Endocrine Society of Australia
Joseph Verbalis
Endocrinology and Metabolism, Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20007 USA
Endocrine Society
John Newell-Price
Endocrine Society
Department of Oncology and Metabolism, The Medical School University of Sheffield, SheffieldS10 2RX, UK
John A H Wass
Department of Endocrinology, Oxford Centre for Diabetes Endocrinology & Metabolism - Endocrinology, Oxford OX3 7LE, UK
Pituitary Society

Keywords: Renaming, Diabetes insipidus

JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS FULL-TEXT HTML

2022 Volume 69 Issue 11 Pages 1281-1284

DOI https://doi.org/10.1507/endocrj.EJ20220831

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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. Whilst this may be relevant to romantic literature, disease names do have real meanings, and consequences, in medicine. Hence, there must be a very good rational 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 editorial provides both the historical context and the rational for this proposed name change.

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