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Psychosocial growth failure: a positive response to growth hormone and placebo
Author(s) -
Boulton TJC,
Smith R,
Single T
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
acta pædiatrica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1651-2227
pISSN - 0803-5253
DOI - 10.1111/j.1651-2227.1992.tb12235.x
Subject(s) - medicine , placebo , hormone , crossover study , growth hormone , endocrinology , alternative medicine , pathology
Seven children were diagnosed as having an emotional cause for growth failure. Pretreatment growth hormone secretion profiles during sleep were analysed using PULSAR. Mean (± SD) growth hormone concentration was 10.9 (4.4) mU/1, mean peak 19.6 (6.7) mU/1 and the peak‐to‐peak interval 147 (108) min. Mean (SEM) IGF‐1 was 1.08 (0.31). The seven children received a six‐month course of recombinant growth hormone in a double‐blind, crossover study using a dose of 1.2 U/kg/week (28 U/ m 2 /week). Daily placebo injections were given for the other six‐month epoch, with a one month washout period. The mean (SEM) growth velocity SD score after growth hormone administration was +4.66 (1.88) and after placebo ‐0.60 (0.69), each value being greater than the pretreatment value of ‐2.32 (0.122) ( p < 0.0001 on analysis of variance). The change in IGF‐1 during growth hormone treatment was not significant. No significant changes in food energy or protein intake occurred.