I Wish I Was A Little Bit Taller - Antidepressants and Reduced Height in Kids
I Wish I Was A Little Bit Taller - Antidepressants and Reduced Height in Kids
What we don't know might be making us less likely to be a baller
The Frontier Psychiatrists is reporting live from AACAP 2024! This article is very on brand given my book, Inessential Pharmacology. (amazon link)
Do antidepressants have adverse effects in kids your author didn't know about yet? As it turns out…yes. It is ironic, given my “Muir-Skee Lo Emotionally Corrective Equation” argument…which, to be concise, is that height difference is an excellent way to explain “size of difference?”
Well, SSRIs and other antidepressants seem to be making kids shorter. Yes. I know. I know. We have already addressed the antidepressants make you obese” problem, but the “Short and Fat” at once is a real kick in the teeth for kids. Let’s review the data…mostly presented in pictures.
After 19 weeks of exposure, it always impacts growth compared to placebo. This is consistent with data from prior trials, like TORDIA1…
And it does terrible things to weight and height at once at two years…
In a cohort, co-administered risperidone (a data set that was available)…
Boys in the developmental stages in the middle of puberty (we call this tanner staging for youth) had the most significant harm in height growth.
The data is telling a consistent story of reduced growth in height with exposure to SSRIs…and that is a huge problem.
This is yet another nail in the coffin of these often ineffective compounds in pediatric populations.
If only there were FDA-approved treatments for depression in youth that didn't cause these adverse effects!
Oh, wait…I’ll ask Dr. Cole! She is sitting right here. That is convenient!
Yes, she is the lead author on the most important paper in my lifetime, and the use of SNT fMRI guided neuromodulation for depression. She has a new job, working at a company called Neuronetics, just received an FDA clearance:
On transcranial magnetic stimulation in youth… what follows is their indication for use. Please read it closely— it says something important.
Neurostar advanced therapy (Branded TMS) is indicated as an adjunct for the treatment of major depressive disorder in adolescent patients ages 15 to 21. That doesn't say treatment-resistant depression. The first line of treatment for adolescent depression is psychotherapy.
Neuronetics now has approval for the augmentation of psychotherapy without medicine in adolescent depression…period. Or augmenting adolescent depression treatment with arise if you also want to be shorter at the end of it?
Thanks for reading, and feel free to share this with your friends.
Emslie GJ, Mayes T, Porta G, Vitiello B, Clarke G, Wagner KD, Asarnow JR, Spirito A, Birmaher B, Ryan N, Kennard B, DeBar L, McCracken J, Strober M, Onorato M, Zelazny J, Keller M, Iyengar S, Brent D. Treatment of Resistant Depression in Adolescents (TORDIA): week 24 outcomes. Am J Psychiatry. 2010 Jul;167(7):782-91. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2010.09040552. Epub 2010 May 17. PMID: 20478877; PMCID: PMC3257891.
Neurotics should be Neuronetics. Arise should be SSRIs in the same paragraph.
Is the current situation that you need to try and fail a bunch of meds and be deemed treatment resistant to get most alternate therapies like neuromodulation?