Growth in renal failure: a longitudinal study of emotional and behavioural changes during trials of growth hormone treatment
a Royal Manchester Children's Hospital,
Manchester: Department of Nephrology, b Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, c Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Lancaster
University, Lancaster
Correspondence to: Dr R J Postlethwaite, Department of Paediatric Nephrology, Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, Manchester M27 4HA.
Accepted 15 December 1997
Growth and psychological functioning were studied in 30 patients with renal failure over a two year period following the offer of growth hormone treatment for significant short stature. Parents' concerns about growth decreased significantly during the study. Twenty
eight parents (93%) accepted growth hormone treatment; most (74%)
were satisfied with it and would opt for it again (89%). The views of
these parents were unrelated to growth outcome in their child. This
suggests that the positive responses were related more to the effort to
improve growth than to any objective treatment success. In contrast
children's reduction in concern about growth, satisfaction with
treatment (36%), and decision to opt for growth hormone again (50%)
were all significantly related to improvement in growth. Parents'
reports of non-compliance increased significantly from 41% at 1 year
to 91% at 2 years in the group as a whole. No significant changes were
identified in maternal mental distress and no additional costs to the
psychological health of the children seem to have resulted from the
introduction of growth hormone treatment. A group of children was
identified who accepted treatment but had continued poor growth. These
appeared to be at particular risk of both physical problems and
associated or consequent psychological difficulties.
© 1998 by Archives of Disease in Childhood
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Walvoord, E. C., de la Pena, A., Park, S., Silverman, B., Cuttler, L., Rose, S. R., Cutler, G., Drop, S., Chipman, J. J.
(2009). Inhaled Growth Hormone (GH) Compared with Subcutaneous GH in Children with GH Deficiency: Pharmacokinetics, Pharmacodynamics, and Safety. J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab.
94: 2052-2059
[Abstract] [Full Text]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in ADC Online
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
