Growth hormone given to normal kids
When scientists introduced synthetic human growth hormone human growth hormone (HGH): see growth hormone. in 1985, the triumph was tempered by concerns about whether the substance would be overprescribed.
Would its use be restricted to the 14,000 children in the United States with growth hormone deficiency growth hormone deficiency Hypopituitarism Endocrinology A condition which affects 1:4000 children; 34:1 Etiology 70% of GHD is idiopathic and attributed to a prenatal insult, possibly due to hypothalamic dysfunction, given that GHD children ? Or would doctors provide a medically assisted growth spurt for the much larger number of children who are merely short for their ages? The first study to examine this question has found that the latter is the case, report Leona Cuttler and her colleagues at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Just 4 of 10 children now getting the treatment are actually growth hormone deficient (GHD) or suffer from chronic kidney failurethe only governmentapproved conditions for the hormone's use. endocrinologists nonetheless "consider [growth hormone] treatment appropriate for selected short nonGHD children," Cuttler and her colleagues report in the August 21 Journal of the American Medical Association JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association is an international peerreviewed general medical journal, published 48 times per year by the American Medical Association. JAMA is the most widely circulated medical journal in the world. . a type of anomaly.
2. a morphologic defect of an organ or larger region of the body, resulting from an intrinsically abnormal developmental process. of the gonads known as Turner syndrome. But many others receive treatment because their parents "are driven by a cultural 'heightism' that permeates American society," Barry B.
Bercu of All Children's Hospital All Children's Hospital is the only freestanding children hospital on Florida West Coast and a leader in pediatric treatment, education, research and advocacy. in St. Petersburg, Fla., says in a JAMA JAMAJournal of the American Medical Association editorial.
Physicians, like parents, appear to be swayed by societal rather than medical factors, the study found. Some of them prescribed the hormone out of a "desire to address a perceived impairment" rather than the medical judgment that the child needs the hormone, say Cuttler and her colleagues.
Each decision to prescribe growth hormone is an expensive one, since a course of treatment costs from $13,000 to $16,000 a year, the researchers report. The price of treating all the genuinely hormonedeficient children in the United States would total $182 million a year. If the group of potential candidates for the therapy were broadened to include 1.7 million children who though short are not hormone deficient, the cost would soar to $22 billion a year.
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