Latest news with #MakeOurChildrenHealthyAgain
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
White House blames 'formatting' for errors in RFK Jr.'s MAHA report. Authors push back.
Citation errors and phantom research used as scientific evidence to bolster Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s landmark 'Make America Healthy Again' commission report were apparently due to 'formatting issues,' according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to establish a commission that was tasked with investigating chronic illnesses and childhood diseases, which culminated in the 'Make Our Children Healthy Again' assessment that was published May 22. However, researchers listed in the report have since come forward saying the articles cited don't exist or were used to support facts that were inconsistent with their research. The errors were first reported by NOTUS. 'I understand there were some formatting issues with the MAHA report that are being addressed and the report will be updated,' Leavitt told reporters May 29. 'But it does not negate the substance of the report.' She also didn't say whether the report was generated by artificial intelligence, or AI, as some have questioned. Although it's difficult to determine whether scientific articles are generated or 'touched up' by AI, there are telling signs, said Yuan Luo, professor and chief AI officer at Northwestern University's clinical and translational sciences institute. Some of those signs may include citation gaps, factual inconsistencies and irrelevant conclusions derived from random research. MAHA report: RFK slams processed foods, pesticides, vaccines as harmful to kids The MAHA report erroneously said an article on the impact of light from computer monitors was published in the journal Pediatrics when it wasn't, according to the study's author Mariana Figueiro, a professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The report also cited Figueiro's research as evidence that electronic devices in children's bedrooms disrupted sleep onset. However, she said the study was on college students and researchers measured melatonin suppression, not sleep. 'The study is ours, but unfortunately, the conclusions in the report are not accurate and the journal reference is incorrect,' Figueiro told USA TODAY via email. 'We have other papers on the topic… but again, none of them were performed with children.' The MAHA report also cited Columbia University epidemiologist Katherine Keyes as first author of a study on anxiety in adolescents. As first reported by NOTUS and confirmed by USA TODAY, Keyes said she did not write the paper cited by the MAHA report. 'I was surprised to see what seems to be an error in the citation of my work in the report, and it does make me concerned given that citation practices are an important part of conducting and reporting rigorous science,' Keyes told USA TODAY via email. Keyes has studied the topic and published a recent study in JAMA Network Open that adolescent girls had higher levels of depressive symptoms than boys, but her study's figures did not match what the MAHA report cited. She said her earlier research on depression and anxiety symptoms yielded results 'that are generally in the ballpark of the MAHA report, although I'm not sure where their exact ranges are drawn from.' Keyes said she would be happy to send information to the MAHA committee to correct the report, but she doesn't know where to reach the report's authors. Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch, a site that tracks retractions in scientific journals and research, said the MAHA report seemed to share characteristics similar to other AI-generated work. AI papers 'tend to hallucinate references,' he said. 'They come up with references that share a lot of words and authors and even journals, journal names, but they're not real." HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the report has been updated to correct "minor citation and formatting errors." "But the substance of the MAHA report remains the same - a historic and transformative assessment by the federal government to understand the chronic disease epidemic afflicting our nation's children," he said. "Under President Trump and Secretary Kennedy, our federal government is no longer ignoring this crisis, and it's time for the media to also focus on what matters." Oransky noted the MAHA report comes as Kennedy said he may prohibit government scientists from publishing research in major peer-reviewed medical journals such as JAMA, Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine 'because they're all corrupt.' Kennedy proposed an HHS publication where government scientists could publish research findings. "When scientific reform is weaponized to only denigrate science and scientists whose studies contradict your beliefs or your wishes, we get to a very dark place,' Oransky said. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: RFK Jr.'s MAHA report errors: Was it AI or 'formatting issues?'
USA Today
29-05-2025
- Health
- USA Today
White House blames 'formatting' for errors in RFK Jr.'s MAHA report. Authors push back.
White House blames 'formatting' for errors in RFK Jr.'s MAHA report. Authors push back. Show Caption Hide Caption First 'Make America Healthy Again' commission report released President Donald Trump attended the "Make America Healthy Again" event where the MAHA commission released its report. Citation errors and phantom research used as scientific evidence to bolster Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s landmark 'Make America Healthy Again' commission report were apparently due to 'formatting issues,' according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to establish a commission that was tasked with investigating chronic illnesses and childhood diseases, which culminated in the 'Make Our Children Healthy Again' assessment that was published May 22. However, researchers listed in the report have since come forward saying the articles cited don't exist or were used to support facts that were inconsistent with their research. The errors were first reported by NOTUS. 'I understand there were some formatting issues with the MAHA report that are being addressed and the report will be updated,' Leavitt told reporters May 29. 'But it does negate the substance of the report.' She also didn't say whether the report was generated by artificial intelligence, or AI, as some have questioned. Although it's difficult to determine whether scientific articles are generated or 'touched up' by AI, there are telling signs, said Yuan Luo, professor and chief AI officer at Northwestern University's clinical and translational sciences institute. Some of those signs may include citation gaps, factual inconsistencies and irrelevant conclusions derived from random research. MAHA report: RFK slams processed foods, pesticides, vaccines as harmful to kids The MAHA report erroneously said an article on the impact of light from computer monitors was published in the journal Pediatrics when it wasn't, according to the study's author Mariana Figueiro, a professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The report also cited Figueiro's research as evidence that electronic devices in children's bedrooms disrupted sleep onset. However, she said the study was on college students and researchers measured melatonin suppression, not sleep. 'The study is ours, but unfortunately, the conclusions in the report are not accurate and the journal reference is incorrect,' Figueiro told USA TODAY via email. 'We have other papers on the topic… but again, none of them were performed with children.' The MAHA report also cited Columbia University epidemiologist Katherine Keyes as first author of a study on anxiety in adolescents. As first reported by NOTUS and confirmed by USA TODAY, Keyes said she did not write the paper cited by the MAHA report. 'I was surprised to see what seems to be an error in the citation of my work in the report, and it does make me concerned given that citation practices are an important part of conducting and reporting rigorous science,' Keyes told USA TODAY via email. Keyes has studied the topic and published a recent study in JAMA Network Open that adolescent girls had higher levels of depressive symptoms than boys, but her study's figures did not match what the MAHA report cited. She said her earlier research on depression and anxiety symptoms yielded results 'that are generally in the ballpark of the MAHA report, although I'm not sure where their exact ranges are drawn from.' Keyes said she would be happy to send information to the MAHA committee to correct the report, but she doesn't know where to reach the report's authors. Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch, a site that tracks retractions in scientific journals and research, said the MAHA report seemed to share characteristics similar to other AI-generated work. AI papers 'tend to hallucinate references,' he said. 'They come up with references that share a lot of words and authors and even journals, journal names, but they're not real." HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the report has been updated to correct "minor citation and formatting errors." "But the substance of the MAHA report remains the same - a historic and transformative assessment by the federal government to understand the chronic disease epidemic afflicting our nation's children," he said. "Under President Trump and Secretary Kennedy, our federal government is no longer ignoring this crisis, and it's time for the media to also focus on what matters." Oransky noted the MAHA report comes as Kennedy said he may prohibit government scientists from publishing research in major peer-reviewed medical journals such as JAMA, Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine 'because they're all corrupt.' Kennedy proposed an HHS publication where government scientists could publish research findings. "When scientific reform is weaponized to only denigrate science and scientists whose studies contradict your beliefs or your wishes, we get to a very dark place,' Oransky said.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
RFK Jr.'s MAHA Report Cites Research Studies That Don't Exist
President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have released the first report authored by the so-called Make America Healthy Again Commission — and it's riddled with citation errors and even outright fake research. The 'MAHA Report: Make Our Children Healthy Again,' which was released earlier this month, purports to expose 'the stark reality of American children's declining health, backed by compelling data and long-term trends.' While the report does attempt to address critical issues and questions related to children's health — including nutrition and the effects of childhood exposure to digital devices — at its core the report is an attempt to backfill Kennedy's more outlandish claims about vaccinations, autism, and medications with shoddy data. According to a Thursday report from NOTUS, at least seven sources cited in the MAHA Report do not seem to exist. In one instance, epidemiologist Katherine Keyes was cited as an author on a study titled, 'Changes in mental health and substance abuse among US adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic.' The commission used the study to bolster a claim that 'approximately 20–25% of adolescents reported anxiety symptoms and 15–20% reported depressive symptoms, with girls showing significantly higher rates.' The provided link to the study led to an error page, the journal it was attributed to did not feature a study with that title on the cited issue date, and Keyes denied ever authoring such a study. 'The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with,' Keyes told NOTUS. 'We've certainly done research on this topic, but did not publish a paper in JAMA Pediatrics on this topic with that co-author group, or with that title.' Several other researchers denied authoring studies cited in the report. Harold J. Farber was listed as the author of a study titled, 'Overprescribing of oral corticosteroids for children with asthma,' which allegedly found that about a third of mild asthma diagnoses are overprescribed oral corticosteroids. Farber denied ever writing a study with that title, and told NOTUS that the MAHA resort was presenting 'clearly an overgeneralization' conclusion on the available research on childhood asthma. In another example, a supposed study — which NOTUS was not able to verify actually existed — seemed to have a made-up author. The MAHA Report was also riddled with broken links, incorrect authors, and other erroneous attributions. When NOTUS asked the White House on Thursday if they had 'confidence that the info coming from HHS can be trusted,' White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that they have 'complete confidence' in Kennedy and his team. Leavitt went on to blame 'some formatting issues' for the errors and asserted that the MAHA report was 'one of the most transformative health reports that has ever been released by the federal government, and is backed on good science that has never been recognized by the federal government.' Leavitt also refused to address a follow up question asking if AI had been used in the report's production. The assertions made in the MAHA report have raised red flags even among conservative think tanks. On Wednesday, the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, published a scathing review of the report on its blog. 'The data in the report bears little relationship to its conclusions,' authors Jeffrey Singer, Terence Kealey, and Bautista Vivanco wrote, noting the report's opening line acknowledging that the U.S. ranks last among its economic peers in various health metrics, despite outsized spending on health care. 'The graph the Commission supplies shows that, dating back to 1970, the US has always ranked last in life expectancy among comparator nations,' Cato countered. 'The reason for the US's poor medical performance lies in the culture that gave us pellagra, which includes the nation's unusually high level of social inequality for a rich country, regulatory barriers to access to health care, its extraordinarily high levels of road traffic deaths […] its unusually high levels of gun deaths […], its extraordinarily high incarceration rate […], and other obvious social factors.' The MAHA Report also touches on Kennedy's pet issue: vaccine skepticism. While the HHS secretary held off on putting conspiracy theories about vaccines causing autism in the report, the report includes suggestions that the current childhood vaccination schedule was potentially harmful to children. The report claims that 'no trials have compared the advisability and safety of the U.S. vaccine schedule as compared to other nations,' and that 'the number of vaccinations on the American vaccine schedule exceeds the number of vaccinations on many European schedules.' There has, in fact, been research done on the differences in vaccination schedules. Medical researchers determined decades ago that administering multiple vaccinations at a time, or within months of each other, is not inherently dangerous, and that vaccine regimens vary between nations because different countries deal with different disease prevalences, cost restrictions, and the general availability of medication. Kennedy has claimed that the agencies under his authority will be separated from the — in his view — 'corrupt' practices of respected medical research institutions and publishers. Earlier this month, Kennedy said in an interview that the National Institute of Health would likely 'stop publishing in the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and those other journals because they're all corrupt.' Instead, the nation's leading health agencies will apparently just make the studies up and hope no one notices. More from Rolling Stone Why Are Health Influencers Drinking Raw Milk and Honey Shots at the White House? RFK Jr. and Republicans Are Dismantling a Health Achievement: Fluoride in Water Republicans' Health Care Plan: Dr. AI Will See You Now Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Politico
19-05-2025
- Health
- Politico
MAHA to reveal plan on kids' chronic diseases
Presented by Driving The Day CHRONIC DISEASE CHRONICLES — The Trump administration's Make America Healthy Again commission is set to release its much-awaited report this week that should shed light on its strategy to combat the chronic disease epidemic among American children. The report, to be released Thursday, is expected to identify the key drivers of chronic childhood illness, such as asthma and autoimmune diseases, in the U.S. It could indicate how HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. might shift key health policy and research focuses within the nation's health agencies as he seeks to further his MAHA agenda. Background: President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing the MAHA commission in February, just after Kennedy was confirmed as secretary. The commission's goals align with Kennedy's MAHA agenda: identifying and addressing the root causes of chronic health issues and ending childhood chronic disease. Trump named Kennedy commission chair and directed the group to first study the scope of childhood chronic disease in the U.S. and any contributing factors — such as diet and environment — and provide government-wide recommendations on addressing the contributing causes. The order directed the commission to submit the 'Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment' to the president by May 24. What to expect: The EO directs the commission to assess and recommend actions on childhood chronic disease, including: — Assessing the threat of potential overuse of medicine, certain food ingredients and chemicals — Identifying best practices for preventing childhood health issues, including through nutrition — Evaluating the effectiveness of existing federal programs and funding aimed at preventing and treating childhood health issues — Eliminating undue health industry influence in scientific findings and establishing a framework for transparency and ethics review in industry-funded projects Key context: Agriculture industry groups worry that the MAHA report could target pesticides and warn that a crackdown on the chemicals' use could negatively affect farmers and consumers. The report is widely expected to assess whether pesticides and other food ingredients are linked to health problems in children. What's next: By mid-August, the commission must submit to Trump a 'Make Our Children Healthy Again' strategy based on the initial report's findings. The strategy should address restructuring the federal government's response to the childhood chronic disease crisis and add new solutions to tackle chronic disease, according to the executive order. WELCOME TO MONDAY PULSE. Congrats to Journalism for meeting his deadline and winning the Preakness this weekend. Send your tips, scoops and feedback to khooper@ and ccirruzzo@ and follow along @Kelhoops and @ChelseaCirruzzo. In Congress GOP ADVANCES MEGABILL — The House Budget Committee voted to advance the GOP's sweeping domestic policy agenda late Sunday night, keeping alive House Speaker Mike Johnson's goal of getting the 'big, beautiful bill' across the finish line by Memorial Day. The legislation — central to President Donald Trump's agenda, including tax cuts, border security and energy policy — advanced through the committee in a 17-16 vote, with four conservatives voting 'present.' Key context: The bill, which would cut federal Medicaid spending by more than $600 billion, initially failed to get through the Budget Committee in a vote Friday, when five Republicans joined the panel's Democratic cohort by voting in opposition. Some conservatives took issue with the legislation's line on work requirements for Medicaid recipients, set to take effect in 2029, wanting them to start sooner. Just before the reconvened markup on Sunday night, Johnson told reporters that 'minor modifications' were promised to those holdouts. House Republican leaders haven't publicly detailed possible changes or briefed the full House GOP Conference, and those concessions to fiscal hawks could endanger support among moderate Republicans wary of changes like speeding up enforcement of Medicaid work requirements. Committee member Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), one of the holdouts Friday who then voted 'present' Sunday night, said in a post on the social media platform X that the bill 'does not yet meet the moment' because it doesn't go far enough in slashing federal dollars going to state Medicaid programs. Roy joined three of his colleagues to 'vote 'present' out of respect for the Republican Conference and the President to move the bill forward,' he said. What's next: Top House Republicans want to push the megabill through the Rules Committee and the House floor by Thursday when lawmakers are set to leave for Memorial Day recess. HEALTH CARE BIDEN'S DIAGNOSIS — Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer, according to a statement from his personal office Sunday, POLITICO's Adam Wren and Gregory Svirnovskiy report. Doctors diagnosed Biden last week with a prostate nodule after he experienced increasing urinary symptoms. By Friday, they diagnosed him with cancer, which has spread to the bone. Biden's office said the cancer 'appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management.' The former president, who is 82, and his family are reviewing treatment options with his doctors, the statement said. What to know: Metastatic prostate cancer is not curable, but it is treatable and can typically be managed for a number of years, according to Dr. Geoffrey Sonn, an associate professor of urology at Stanford University School of Medicine who specializes in treating patients with prostate and kidney cancer. Sonn is not involved in Biden's care. About 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, and it is more common among older men — with about 60 percent of cases diagnosed in men 65 and older, according to the American Cancer Society. 'People can live for years on these hormonal therapy medicines, and there are other backup treatments once the initial ones start to fail, too, and those work longer, too,' he said. 'There's been a number of new medicines that have been improved and shown to be effective in the last 10 years or so.' The hallmark treatment for prostate cancer that's spread to the bones is hormone therapy, which typically involves reducing the patient's testosterone level and can cause the cancer to shrink or stop growing, Sonn said. The median survival for patients undergoing the treatment is four years, though it can vary widely and sometimes be extended when patients use additional therapies or participate in clinical trials. Quality of life with the diagnosis 'can be quite good with appropriate exercise and diet,' though the hormone treatment does have side effects, including sexual dysfunction and weakened bone density, according to Sonn. 'This is very different than if you hear someone that shows up with metastatic pancreatic cancer, where you know most are going to be dead within three to six months,' he said. 'Prostate cancer is very different in that regard, in that it can be managed for years.' Even so: Prostate cancer is typically slow-moving, but Biden's advanced diagnosis suggests it's a faster-moving tumor, which could make it more difficult to treat, said Dr. Cory Abate-Shen, a professor of urologic sciences at Columbia University. Abate-Shen is not involved in Biden's care. 'It's pretty serious if it's so advanced, because you wouldn't imagine that from someone who's being monitored,' she said. Vaccines NOVAVAX COVID SHOT APPROVED — The FDA on Friday green-lighted Novavax's Covid-19 vaccine — but with some restrictions. The FDA granted the company full approval for the protein-based and non-messenger RNA Covid shot, which previously had only emergency authorization for use in people 12 and older. But the agency approved the shot for use only in people 65 and older or for those ages 12 to 64 who have at least one underlying condition putting them at high risk for severe Covid outcomes. Novavax competitors Pfizer and Moderna received full approval for their mRNA Covid-19 vaccines for certain age groups during the pandemic. Why it matters: The vaccine's approval for certain groups of people comes amid uncertainty over whether the Trump administration will continue to recommend yearly Covid shots for all Americans ahead of a meeting of the CDC's top vaccine advisers next month. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic, also plans to stop recommending routine Covid vaccines for pregnant women, teenagers and children, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Key context: The agency had initially set an April 2025 deadline to decide whether to license the shot. But the decision was delayed after a top FDA official directly intervened in the agency's review and asked for more data on the shot — a highly unusual move that cut against longstanding precedent at the FDA designed to shield scientific assessments from political interference. WHAT WE'RE READING The Associated Press' Eric Tucker, Gene Johnson and Alanna Durkin Richer report on the FBI investigating an explosion at a California fertility clinic as an act of terrorism. POLITICO's Hassan Ali Kanu reports on the Trump administration asking the Supreme Court to allow mass layoffs of federal workers.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Trump casts psychiatric and weight-loss drugs as threats to children
President Donald Trump has instructed his administration to scrutinize the 'threat' to children posed by antidepressants, stimulants and other common psychiatric drugs, targeting medication taken by millions in his latest challenge to long-standing medical practices. The directive came in an executive order Thursday that established a 'Make America Healthy Again' commission led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has criticized the use of those drugs and issued false claims about them. Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. The order said the commission should prepare a 'Make Our Children Healthy Again' assessment within 100 days that examines 'the prevalence of and threat posed by the prescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, stimulants, and weight-loss drugs.' The directive comes as children and teens endure a mental health crisis exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Kennedy also has made childhood nutrition and healthful food a signature issue. He has been critical of the boom in weight loss drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound and Mounjaro. The medication review joins a slew of Trump administration policies upending the government's approach to health, many of which are embroiled in legal challenges. They include attempts to remove vaccine information from health agency websites, to ban gender transition care for children and to cut billions in biomedical research funding. Kush Desai, a White House spokesman, said the order follows concerns about doctors overprescribing the drugs and harming Americans of all ages. The president called for a review of prescription practices and use of the drugs to determine whether the government should offer new guidance on the medication. 'The Trump administration will continue to review current best practices in patient care and scientific research to implement needed reforms,' Desai said in an email. Marketa M. Wills, chief executive officer of the American Psychiatric Association, said psychiatric drugs can be very effective and generally are given to children carefully after front-line treatments such as talk therapy. 'In many cases, they can give children their lives back,' Wills said. 'It's a long, involved process before kids get started on medication, and it's done judiciously.' As with nearly every medication, medical professionals have debated the protocols for providing children psychiatric and weight-loss drugs, as well as ways to balance the risks and benefits. In 2021, 8 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 17 received medication for their mental health, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An analysis by MedPage Today found that in September 2024 there were more than 125,000 prescriptions written for GLP-1 weight loss drugs by pediatric and adolescent medicine specialists, up from nearly 60,000 in October 2022. Jonathan Zhang, an assistant professor at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy, said many drugs used to treat mental health conditions in the United States are being used off-label in children. Additional research would be beneficial, he said, but medication usage should be considered in the context of the limited availability of therapists and alternative treatments. 'There is a growing mental health crisis among youth, so if there is overutilization of medication, in part it is also an access and provider shortage problem,' Zhang said. - - - Kennedy's controversial mental health comments Some mainstream public health experts have doubted that Kennedy, a lawyer who founded an anti-vaccine organization, is qualified to craft sound policy given his lack of medical training and long history of promoting conspiracy theories and sloppy research. In interviews and public statements over the years, Kennedy has compared antidepressants and weight-loss drugs to controlled substances. He has said antidepressants are harder to quit than heroin, a claim contradicted by research and experts. He told Fox News in October that pharmaceutical companies are counting on selling weight-loss medication to Americans because patients are 'stupid' and 'addicted to drugs.' Kennedy has speculated that psychiatric drugs lead to mass shootings at schools, claims that are not grounded in credible research. In an April interview with YouTuber George Janko, Kennedy said the National Institutes of Health should override medical privacy rules to determine whether mass shooters used SSRIs. During his short-lived presidential campaign, Kennedy proposed creating wellness farms where young people could 'get off' SSRIs and Adderall, a stimulant widely used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Those comments were first reported by Mother Jones. A Washington Post review of Kennedy's public appearances found he also promoted these centers as particularly beneficial for Black youth. 'Every Black kid is now just standard put on Adderall, on SSRIs, benzos, which are known to induce violence, and those kids are going to have a chance to go somewhere and get re-parented, to live in a community where there'll be no cellphones, no screens. You'll actually have to talk to people,' Kennedy said in a June episode of the 19Keys online show. - - - Antidepressants The rate of antidepressant prescriptions for adolescents has jumped sharply in recent years, rising 43 percent between 2016 and 2022, according to a paper published last year in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Wills, of the American Psychiatric Association, said antidepressants are not meant to be a front-line treatment for children. They are used when other treatment such as talk therapy is not working. Awais Aftab, a psychiatrist in Cleveland, said there are legitimate questions surrounding proper use of psychiatric drugs in children because of side effects, limited data on long-term use and evidence that SSRIs are less effective in young people. 'Psychiatric medications are being used because there is a genuine clinical need,' Aftab said in an email. 'The response should not be to restrict access to medication by thinking their use is unnecessary, but rather, the goal should be to increase access to high-quality clinical care that goes beyond reliance on medications.' - - - Stimulants The scrutiny of stimulants such as Adderall comes as parents and children have confronted shortages. The use of stimulants by adults has spiked in recent years but has been largely stagnant or declining in children and teenagers, according to an analysis of commercial insurance claims by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2021, about 10 percent of boys and 5 percent of girls ages 10 to 14 received a stimulant, the review showed. 'I'm worried about the proliferation of stimulants and mind altering substances,' Kennedy said during a 2023 C-SPAN appearance. 'I don't think it's a good thing for people.' Max Wiznitzer, a professor of pediatrics and neurology at Case Western University and specialist in ADHD, said research has shown stimulants are highly effective and side effects such as decreased appetite rare. He said that stimulants are best used as a bridge to help children develop good behavioral habits. But he questioned whether the Trump administration is acting in good faith in evaluating their use. 'That is not an open-minded approach to the medication by using the word threat,' Wiznitzer said. - - - Weight-loss drugs The Food and Drug Administration approved Ozempic for use in children in 2023. The same year, the American Academy of Pediatrics updated its guidance to recommend use of the drugs for children ages 12 and up with obesity and, in some cases, for children as young as 8. Mark Fendrick, professor of health management and policy at the University of Michigan, said it was 'very surprising' to see weight-loss drugs grouped in with other medications that Trump said should be assessed as potential threats. He said there have been numerous recent peer-reviewed studies - including one published in January in Nature Medicine that have shown the drugs to be safe and effective for a wide range of indications. Fendrick said he supports Kennedy's emphasis on healthy eating as a way to combat the nation's obesity epidemic. However, he said that being able to treat children with GLP-1 medications will pay off in future health gains. 'Many people only have a short window for success, and these efforts that are outlined like reducing ultra-processed foods can take multiple decades to achieve,' Fendrick said. 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