PSYCHOSOCIAL GROWTH FAILURE - A POSITIVE RESPONSE TO GROWTH-HORMONE AND PLACEBO

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/m2/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.