Trajectory of the body mass index of children and adolescents attending a reference mental health center

Objectives The primary objective was to describe the standardized body mass index (z-BMI) trajectory of children and adolescents admitted to a psychiatric reference center in Mexico City according to their diagnosis and medication use. The secondary objective was to compare z-BMI between antipsychotic users and non-users. Methods This is a retrospective cohort study. The psychiatric diagnosis, prescribed medications, serial heights, and weights were collected from the medical records. Results The median baseline z-BMI of the 129 analyzed cases was 0.88 (interquartile range [IQR]: 0–1.92), and the prevalence of excessive weight (obesity or overweight) was 46.8 %. At the end of follow-up (median 50.3 weeks), the median change in z-BMI was −0.09 (IQR: −0.68 to 0.42). New long-term users of antipsychotics (n=29) had an increase in their z-BMI, in contrast to never-users (median difference 0.73, p=0.01) and to previous users (median difference 0.92, p=0.047). The 59 subjects with excessive weight at admission had a median z-BMI change of −0.39 (IQR: −0.81 to −0.04). Among patients with excessive weight and depression, there was a greater decrease in z-BMI in sertraline users (n=13) compared with fluoxetine users (n=15) (median −0.65 vs. 0.21, p<0.001). Conclusions New long-term users of antipsychotics showed a significant increase in their z-BMI. Patients with depressive disorders and obesity on sertraline therapy tended to show a decrease in their z-BMI.