Long-term consequences of weight-loss drugs needs more study, says UCI Health pediatrician
Restricting food intake could harm adolescent growth and development
January 14, 2025
IN THE NEWS: Roughly 20% of adolescents are obese and the number is expected to increase over the next several decades.
In an effort to help prevent the complications of obesity – including high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol – physicians are turning to medications, including glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists.
UCI Health pediatrician Dr. Dan Cooper tells Medscape that the long-term effects of giving the drugs to developing children are not fully known.
“So now we’re going to reduce appetite and reduce food intake — which is what happens with these drugs — at a critical point in growth and development. If we start giving them in large numbers to a pediatric age group, what are the longer-term consequences? We’re not going to see them right away.”
Cooper supports medication as one part of an obesity management approach, but notes that, so far, the data so far doesn’t strongly support it over lifestyle interventions.
Cooper is a pediatrician who sees patients at UCI Health Pediatric Services. He is also a Distinguished Professor of pediatrics at the UC Irvine School of Medicine, the associate director of the UC Irvine Institute for Clinical and Translational Science and interim director of the UC Irvine Institute for Precision Health.
His research seeks to understand the role of physical activity and exercise in the growth and development of children and adolescents in both health and disease, especially in those with chronic conditions like asthma, cystic fibrosis, obesity, heart disease and metabolic syndromes.
He is the lead author of Unintended consequences of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists medication in children and adolescents: A call to action, a commentary about the risks of weight-loss drugs for children, including an increased risk of suicidal ideation. It was published in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science in August 2023.
He leads the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium, which will assess the molecular changes that occur in response to physical activity in children and adolescents as well as adults.
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