[Endocrine behavior of battered children in the acute stage of the aggression]

To date the cause of growth retardation of children who have suffered physical abuse and emotional deprivation is unknown. Hypophyseal disturbances in these patients have been proposed of the cause but there are still several concerns on the dynamics of growth hormone secretion in these children. In this study, eleven out of sixteen patients had a low height without important diminution of corporal weight. Growth hormone under basal conditions was found to be elevated in battered children compared with a control group (15.2 +/- 4.7 ng/mL vs 9.6 +/- 1.9 ng/mL, p = 0.025). Two weeks after hospitalization a tendency towards normalization was apparent (13.8 +/- 3.0, NS vs controls). Cortisol, thyroid hormones T3 and T4 as well as thyrotrophin did not show significant changes under basal conditions with respect to control patients although there were some isolated cases with abnormal values. While chronic stress could adversely affect hypophyseal trophic hormone secretion, our study did not show either this were effect nor a clear association between growth retardation and a characteristic abnormal endocrine pattern. It seems that the cause growth and developmental retardation in battered children is of a multifactorial.