Diabetes is one of the most serious challenges to healthcare worldwide and is projected to affect 239 million people by the year 2010. It also represents the most common cause of progressive and disabling neuropathy in the world. A significant breakthrough in the treatment and/or management of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), therefore, represents an opportunity to reduce the burden to society and improve the quality of life of people with diabetes. This text focuses on this complex subject, presenting the findings of the 8th meeting of the European Neurological Society, held in Nice, France in 1998. It discusses a drug that provides a possibility for a putative therapy for complications in diabetes, encouraging the investigation of its effects on disabling neuropathies characterized by small-fibre lesions.
