Off-Label Antidepressants ... For Obesity?

Adderall’s side effects can be nasty, its risks aren’t fully understood and it hasn’t been studied as a weight loss tool — but obesity poses its own threats, and doctors are prescribing the ADHD drug to help overweight kids lose weight: He was 30 pounds overweight, and blood tests showed he was headedtoward Type 2 […]

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Adderall's side effects can be nasty, its risks aren't fully understood and it hasn't been studied as a weight loss tool -- but obesity poses its own threats, and doctors are prescribing the ADHD drug to help overweight kids lose weight:

He was 30 pounds overweight, and blood tests showed he was headedtoward Type 2 diabetes. His parents say Alex was already physicallyactive and eating a healthy diet. They didn't know what to do.

Theirpediatrician didn't know either, so she referred Lisa and Hank Veith toDr. Fuad Ziai, a pediatric endocrinologist in nearby Oak Lawn,
Illinois. In the summer before Alex entered sixth grade, Ziaiprescribed Adderall, an amphetamine used to treat attention deficit andhyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Alex didn't have ADHD, but one of thedrug's common side effects is weight loss. And that's what happened toAlex. [...]

Ziai's approach to treatingobesity -- he says he has prescribed Adderall for weight loss to about800 children and teens -- raises an important ethical question: Has theobesity epidemic among children become so severe that it's OK toprescribe a drug not approved for weight loss when the drug can haveserious, sometimes life-threatening side effects?

ADHD drug use for youth obesity raises ethical questions [CNN]