title: The effect of psychostimulants on skeletal health in boys co-treated with risperidone.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the skeletal effects of chronic psychostimulant treatment in children and adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Medically healthy 5- to 17-year-old males from 4 different clinic-based studies were combined for this analysis. They were divided by psychostimulant use into 3 groups: none to negligible, intermittent, and continuous use. Most (95%) had also received risperidone for 6 months or more. Treatment history was extracted from medical and pharmacy records. Anthropometric and bone measurements, using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry and peripheral quantitative computed tomography, were obtained at each research visit. Multivariable linear regression analysis models examined whether age-sex-specific height Z-score and skeletal outcomes differed among the 3 psychostimulant-use groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The sample consisted of 194 males with a mean age of 11.7 ± 2.8 years at study entry. The majority had an externalizing disorder. There was no significant difference across the 3 treatment groups in height Z-score or in skeletal outcomes at the radius, lumbar spine, or whole body. One hundred forty-four boys had valid follow-up skeletal data 1.4 ± 0.7 years after study entry. Again, neither height Z-score nor the skeletal outcomes were different among those who remained on psychostimulants between the 2 visits, started psychostimulants anew, or had not taken psychostimulants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Following chronic treatment, psychostimulants did not appear to significantly affect bone mass accrual in children and adolescents taking risperidone. There was a small, but statistically not significant, negative impact on longitudinal growth.
authors: Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX. Electronic address: chadi.calarge@bcm.edu.
authors: Chadi A
authors: CA
authors: Calarge
authors: Department of Internal Medicine, The University of Iowa College of Public Health, Iowa City, IA.
authors: Janet A
authors: JA
authors: Schlechte
authors: Department of Epidemiology, The University of Iowa College of Public Health, Iowa City, IA.
authors: Trudy L
authors: TL
authors: Burns
authors: Department of Pediatrics, The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.
authors: Babette S
authors: BS
authors: Zemel
mesh_terms: D015502:Absorptiometry, Photon; D000293:Adolescent; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D018967:Risperidone / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012702:Serotonin Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs; D012702:Serotonin Antagonists; D018967:Risperidone