Growth Hormone
Growth Hormone is effective in increasing height, increasing muscle mass, decreasing body fat, improving weight distribution, increasing stamina and increasing bone mineral density.
Find out moreWhat Treatments are available for Prader-Willi Syndrome?
People with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) are affected from birth throughout all stages of their life. The challenges they experience change throughout the different stages; however, each stage consistently presents with real, significant and potentially life-threatening issues. A multi-disciplinary, holistic, coordinated and proactive care team is essential across the lifespan of someone with PWS to ensure quality of life can be achieved. The treatment of PWS is currently based on treating the symptoms of the disorder as they arise.
A holistic and multidisciplinary approach starting from the neonatal period is recommended to ensure optimal management to improve the quality of life of Prader-Willi Syndrome patients throughout their lifetime. To ensure a successful transition from childhood to adulthood in patients with PWS, a multidisciplinary team needs to share clinical information. It should keep the same policy about food, environmental, and psychiatric issues.
Research has shown that Holistic care and integrated services deliver better outcomes for people with Prader-Willi Syndrome.
There is no medication available to cure Prader-Willi Syndrome. Still, there are viable treatments, interventions and management strategies to assist with many of the symptoms/characteristics of Prader-Willi Syndrome.
Treatment aims to ease some of the associated problems. Depending on the needs of the person, some of the treatment options may include:
- strict supervision of diet (there are no medical means of curbing appetite)
- plenty of physical activity to help maintain the child’s body weight within the normal range
- growth hormone treatment to overcome the hormone deficiency that contributes to the child’s short stature
- hormone therapy to increase muscle mass
- hormone therapy to boost inadequate sex hormone levels
- medication to help control any obsessive and compulsive behaviours
- orthopaedic treatment for scoliosis or kyphosis
- appropriate prescription eyeglasses
- specialist care from a range of healthcare professionals.
A group of clinicians have established a series of guidelines for the treatment of people with Prader-Willi syndrome. The guidelines have been implemented in hospitals around the USA and we hope that these guidelines will be adopted here in Australia. The guidelines have been outlined in ‘A multidisciplinary approach to the clinical management of Prader-Willi syndrome,’ published in the journal Molecular Genetics & Genomic Medicine.
