UNDER THE KNIFE

Weight-Loss Drugs and Surgery Recommended to Treat Childhood Obesity Under New Guidelines

It’s the first changes in the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations in 15 years.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommended for the first time that physicians treat childhood obesity with weight-loss drugs and surgery in new guidelines issued on Monday. The new recommendations—the first update to the AAP’s guidance in 15 years—underscores the importance of taking early action against obesity, which continues to rise in children. Since the 1980s, rates of obesity in children have tripled and even quadrupled in teenagers. The new guidelines highlight that obesity is a complex condition which cannot be cured with a simple solution, instead advocating lifestyle and behavioral changes—but now medications and surgery are also being recommended alongside those changes for the first time. “We now have evidence that obesity therapy is effective,” Dr. Sandra Hassink, medical director of the AAP Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight and co-author of the new guidelines, told NBC News. “There is treatment, and now is the time to recognize that obesity is a chronic disease and should be addressed as we address other chronic diseases.”