title: Current pharmacotherapy for treating pediatric nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In the past decade, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) had rapidly become one of the most common liver diseases. If efficient therapeutic strategies will not reduce the prevalence of NAFLD in children soon, serious deleterious effects on the quality of life of these patients in adulthood are expected. Lifestyle modification is the current first-line therapy for pediatric NAFLD, even though it is difficult to obtain and to maintain. Therefore, lifestyle changes are usually ineffective and long-lasting improvement of the NAFLD-associated liver damage is rarely observed. As guidelines for the management of NAFLD in children are still lacking, the identification of effective treatments represents a challenge for pediatric hepatologists in the near future.
  
  
  METHODS
  Here, we review the existing therapeutic approaches for treating NAFLD in children and overview all ongoing clinical trials for new promising drugs in pediatric setting.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Considering the multifactorial pathogenesis and the wide spectrum of histological and clinical features of NAFLD, we believe that a drug mix, containing agents that are effective against the principal pathogenetic factors, associated with lifestyle modification, could represent the winning choice of treatment for pediatric NAFLD.
authors.affiliation: IRCCS, "Bambino Gesù" Children's Hospital, Hepato-Metabolic Disease Unit , Rome , Italy.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Della Corte
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liccardo
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ferrari
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alisi
authors.forename: Valerio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Nobili
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D065626:Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D011788:Quality of Life
keywords: children; nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; obesity; treatment