Short-term BMI-SDS change during child and adolescent psychiatric hospitalization

Children and adolescents receiving inpatient psychiatric treatment may be at increased risk of short-term weight gain-related changes, particularly during antipsychotic exposure. In this retrospective cohort study we analyzed a patient-level cohort of 776 unique patients younger than 18 years treated between 2022 and 2024, after exclusion of eating disorder diagnoses and repeated hospitalizations. Clinical data were extracted from electronic medical records and included demographic and clinical characteristics, antipsychotic treatment, and anthropometric measurements. The median hospitalization duration was 3.0 days (IQR 2.0-7.0). Repeated BMI-SDS measurements permitting calculation of BMI-SDS change were available for 228 patients. Mean BMI-SDS change was +0.071 (SD = 0.242). BMI-SDS increased significantly among patients exposed to antipsychotics (n = 152