[Growth hormone treatment in adults: legitimate and illegitimate indications]

Growth hormone replacement therapy of hypopituitary adult patients has demonstrated its usefulness during the last 12 years: it decreases excess body fat while raising lean mass and basal metabolic rate, it ameliorates the lipid profile of the patients and decreases their peripheral vascular resistance, it increases bone mineralization and ameliorates the quality of life of treated individuals. Based on these results, many other applications of growth hormone have been developed: treatment of old age, of simple and android obesities, of osteoporosis and extreme catabolic situations. The data collected have been of great pathophysiological interest, but do not lead for the present towards therapeutic indications.