Cognitive, emotional, physical and social effects of growth hormone treatment in adults with Prader-Willi syndrome.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over).

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a multisystem genetic disorder characterized by short stature, muscular hypotonia, hyperphagia, obesity, maladaptive behaviour, hypogonadism and partial growth hormone (GH) deficiency (GHD).

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, both men and women.

Nineteen patients, 9 females and 10 males, median age 25 years, mean BMI 35 kg/m2 participated in this study.

All patients fulfilled the clinical criteria for PWS and 13 had a positive genotype.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, placebo-controlled and pilot study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) could be set against what happens without it.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) study would be practical.

Approximately half of the group had GHD.

At the same time intervals, a self-evaluation questionnaire was answered at the end of each test session.

Other questionnaires reflecting the patients' cognitive, emotional, physical and social status were answered by relatives/caretakers at baseline and at 3 and 6 months following cessation of GH treatment.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Body Composition, Body Mass Index, Cognition Disorders, Human Growth Hormone, Neuropsychological Tests, Pilot Projects and Prader-Willi Syndrome.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, placebo-controlled and pilot study of Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over).

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 7 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2005 (Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR), a journal based in England.

More context: the Exogenous HGH, sermorelin & older GHRPs (why they're passed over) compound page, all human trials.