RFK Jr. Is Right: Kids Don’t Need Weight-Loss Drugs
Too many young people are prescribed pills for mental illness. Are we repeating history with GLP-1s?
By Jillian Lederman, WSJ
Feb. 5, 2025 4:55 pm ET
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, speaks at a Senate committee hearing in Washington, Jan 30. Photo: Michael Brochstein/Zuma Press
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sometimes mixes wrongheaded ideas together with sensible ones. A case in point from his confirmation hearings last week: “GLP-1 drugs . . . are miracle drugs,” the health secretary nominee said in an exchange with Sen. Andy Kim (D., N.J.). “But I do not think they should be the first front-line intervention for 6-year-old kids. . . . That is the standard of practice now.”
The Food and Drug Administration hasn’t approved Ozempic, Wegovy or any other weight-loss drug for obesity treatment in children under 12, although clinical trials have been conducted in younger age groups. But minors are being overmedicated with weight-loss drugs, and Mr. Kennedy is one of the few people pointing it out.
Originally designated for treatment of type 2 diabetes, these medications are now used to address obesity. The rate of childhood obesity has skyrocketed in the U.S. from about 5% in 1978 to nearly 20%. In December 2022, the FDA approved weekly Wegovy injections for obesity treatment in children 12 and older. The number of Americans 12 to 17 using GLP drugs in a given month rose from 1,653 in 2020 to 10,785 in 2023.
The effect? No one really knows. The FDA approved Wegovy for children because a clinical trial showed that obese teens treated with the drug experienced a 16.1% reduction in body-mass index. But there is no conclusive data on the long-term effects of weight-loss drugs on children’s physical and mental health. All we have is data on likely consequences, none of which look good.
According to an August 2023 study in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, by artificially restricting caloric intake, weight-loss drugs may compromise children’s physical development, potentially leading to hormonal imbalances and, later in life, osteoporosis—risks to which adults are less susceptible. The study then notes that the rapid development of orally administered weight-loss drugs, combined with adolescents’ inclination toward risk-taking, creates a “perfect storm for potential abuse.”
That’s especially true for girls. More than 22% of adolescents worldwide exhibit disordered eating, and more than 60% of them are female. Girls also constitute 60% of the nearly 31,000 Americans 12 to 17 who took prescription weight-loss drugs in 2023—even though obesity rates are lower in girls than in boys. Nearly 10% of adolescent females worldwide took nonprescription weight-loss products in 2023—including diet pills, laxatives and diuretics—compared with about 2% of adolescent males. Studies find these products to be concentrated among girls who struggle with self-esteem, body insecurities and parental or media pressure to lose weight.
There’s a troubling parallel here. As rates of diagnosed mental illness among children have spiked, so too has the prescription of mental-health drugs. In 1996 the share of American children on psychotropic medication was 3.9%. In 2022 it was 9.3%. Among children in foster care, it’s 35%. According to a 2014 study, psychotropic medications are prescribed to 85% of children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, 60% of those with bipolar disorder, and 57% of those with depression.
This is despite, as the study says, “limited information related to efficacy in children” as well as data showing that adverse effects—such as muscle spasms and Parkinson’s-like symptoms—from some of these medications are more concentrated in adolescents than in adults. Long-term effects are poorly understood and likely include increased risk of diabetes, weight gain, cognitive and behavioral issues and more.
Increasing rates of obesity and mental illness among children are real, complex societal problems. But it’s a mistake to treat understudied pharmaceuticals as a cheat code. Why are children experiencing physical and emotional struggles at such higher rates than they did in the past? What self-regulation techniques might they use to combat these trends? Are drugs the answer? The youngest among us are uniquely susceptible to medical advances that promise easy solutions to their struggles. It’s adults’ job to protect children from temptation, not enable them. At best, the FDA’s approval of these drugs for children is premature. At worst, it’s a dereliction of duty.
If Mr. Kennedy is confirmed, he won’t have the power to rescind FDA approval of drugs, and such a dramatic change would have adverse side effects of its own. But he can and should commission studies into the long-term effects of weight-loss and psychotropic medications on adolescent development and health. Making a generation of children dependent on drugs for physical and emotional regulation is no way to make America healthy again.
Ms. Lederman is a Joseph Rago Memorial Fellow at the Journal.
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