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

Objectives 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. A secondary objective was to compare z-BMI between antipsychotic users and non-users. Methods 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 (IQR: 0 -1.92), and the overweight/obesity prevalence was 46.8%. At the end of follow-up (median, 50.3 weeks), they had a median change in z-BMI of -0.09 (IQR: - 0.68 -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 change in z -BMI of -0.39 (IQR: - 0.81--0.04). Among patients with excessive weight and depression, a greater decrease in z-BMI was observed 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 increased their z-BMI significantly. Patients with depressive disorders and obesity on sertraline therapy tend to decrease their z-BMI.