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- A task force of more than a dozen doctors has warned against prescribing weight-loss drugs like Ozempic to children.
- In 2023, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggested drug treatment for obese children in addition to lifestyle interventions.
- Medical experts continue to debate the safety and effectiveness of these drugs in adolescents.
As weight-loss drugs such as WeGovy and Ozempic dominate much of today’s consumer healthcare conversations, concerns are growing about one especially vulnerable group: children.
Pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are conducting clinical trials on obese children as young as 6 to understand how this class of drugs, called GLP-1, affects their health, Business Insider’s Hilary Brook previously reported.
In January 2023, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended that health care providers offer weight-loss medications in addition to lifestyle adjustments to treat obesity in children over the age of 12. However, not all health care professionals agree with the AAP’s recommendation.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a group of more than a dozen physicians and public health experts from a range of academic institutions, issued a statement Tuesday promoting drug-free weight-loss interventions for children ages 6 and older.
“We believe more evidence is needed before we can make recommendations for or against prescribing the medication to children and adolescents,” Wanda Nicholson, chair of the task force and senior associate dean for diversity and inclusion at the George Washington University School of Public Health, told STAT.
“While there have been trials evaluating the effectiveness of FDA-approved medications, our search was limited in the number of trials per medication. Additionally, there was limited evidence regarding maintenance of weight loss after children stop taking the medication,” Nicholson said.
Doctors still prefer lifestyle interventions over drugs
GLP-1 medications such as WeGovy and Ozempic contain semaglutide, a substance that regulates blood sugar levels and increases insulin, a natural hormone that tells the body when it’s full.
Early studies have shown that these injectable medications are effective as a weight-loss intervention for obese adults.
However, this class of medication has limitations: Many GLP-1 users report weight gain after stopping GLP-1, and some complain of side effects such as diarrhea, stomach “numbness,” hair loss, and nausea.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force expressed concern about these potential side effects on children and about an excessive focus on weight rather than health.
Nicholson said clinicians are using lifestyle interventions, such as nutrition and exercise plans, to help obese children lose weight and reduce risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes and liver disease.
But the recommendations of the AAP and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force overlap, according to Amanda Staiano, an associate professor of childhood obesity and health behavior at Louisiana State University’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center.
“The AAP clearly states that medication should not be the sole therapy. Medications are adjunctive, used in conjunction with intensive health behavioral and lifestyle treatments,” Staino, who served on the AAP’s clinical practice guideline writing committee, told STAT.
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