Memorize Diabetes Drugs with a Mnemonic

Struggling to recall diabetes medications? This is a common issue, as between the Sulfonylureas, Insulins, Metformin, and more, there are over 20 different drug names that a healthcare practitioner needs to know! In this post, I’ll share a visual memory aid to master all the diabetes drugs for medical school exams like the USMLE Step 1 or Step 2, COMLEX Level 1 and Level 2, or NBME shelf exams. This technique can help you achieve the score you want on exam day.

Visual Mnemonic for DPP-4 Inhibitors

Since there’s a lot of different diabetes drugs, I suggest chunking the information and focusing on one drug class at a time. Watch our video below for a mnemonic to remember the DPP-4 Inhibitors, a class of drugs that includes the drugs linagliptin, sitagliptin, and saxagliptin. You can view the accompanying image here.

In short, we’ve put all the information about the DPP-4 Inhibitors into a single picture mnemonic. Here’s a summary of the facts for the DPP-4 Inhibitors we covered in the mnemonic above:

DPP-4 inhibitors (Dr. Pepper 4-pack inhibited) are a class of drugs recognizable by their -gliptin ending (Glipton tea), including sitagliptin (set of Glipton), linagliptin (line of Glipton), and saxagliptin (sacks of Glipton). These drugs are used to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus (diabetes monitor) by lowering blood sugar levels. Inhibition of the DPP-4 enzyme has several downstream effects, including increasing GLP-1 levels (increased GuLP #1 drinks), decreasing gastric emptying (decrease emptying of stomach-shaped fanny pack) and increasing satiety (rubbing full belly) . These drugs also stimulate glucose-dependent insulin release (activating sugar dependent insulation release) , and decrease glucagon release (decreasing glue gun release). Side effects of these drugs include an increased risk of developing urinary infections (dirty infected urinal) and upper respiratory infections (blowing nose). Notably, these drugs typically do not cause hypoglycemia (“does not cause hypoglycemia” safety tag), and usually have no effect on weight (weight unchanged on scale) in patients.

Just remember our convenience store with its inhibited Dr. Pepper 4-pack and the Glipton-brand tea, and you’ll be set for test day.

How to Remember GLP-1 Analogs

As I mentioned above, it is easier to learn the different diabetes drugs if you break the information up into smaller pieces. This follows a memory phenomenon known as chunking, which is why phone numbers are broken up (e.g. 1-800-867-5309 compared to 18008675309).

As such, we’ve separated the different diabetes drugs into separate mnemonics. Watch the below video for our mnemonic for GLP-1 Analogs. The interactive image for review can be found here.

Once again, here’s all the facts we’ve covered for GLP-1 Analogs above:

GLP-1 Analogs (imitation GuLP #1 drink) are a class of drugs that include exenatide (Exxon tide) and liraglutide (lyrical guide) . These drugs are used to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus (diabetes monitor) by lowering blood sugar levels. As their name suggests, these drugs work by imitating the actions of GLP1 in the body, which stimulates glucose-dependent insulin release (activating sugar dependent insulation release) and decreases glucagon release (decreasing glue gun release). These drugs also decrease gastric emptying (decrease emptying of stomach-shaped fanny pack) and increase satiety (rubbing full belly). A common side effect of these drugs is nausea and vomiting (vomiting), while a much rarer side effect is pancreatitis (pan in flames). The GLP1 analogs are also known to cause weight loss (loose pants) in patients. Finally, these drugs typically do not cause hypoglycemia (“does not cause hypoglycemia” safety tag) in patients.

Picture yourself aboard the ship with a GuLP #1 drink and you’ll have the GLP-1 analogs under wraps.

Use Image Learning to Score Higher

So why does this all work? Well, our brain is better at remembering pictures than words. This is known as the picture superiority effect, and you can take advantage of this by using visual mnemonics to remember facts. But making images like this takes time, which is why Pixorize has already made video mnemonics for all of the different diabetes  drugs. This includes all the different drug names, like Insulins, Sulfonylureas, Metformin, TZDs, SGLT2 Inhibitors, Alpha-Glucosidase Inhibitors, Pramlintide, and more. In conclusion, visual mnemonics are a powerful asset for students seeking to strengthen their grasp of pharmacology. See the full catalog of Pixorize’s USMLE Step 1 and 2 mnemonics here.