Trial of Amitriptyline for Chronic Oral Food Refusal in Children 9 Months to 8 Years of Age

Summary

Gastrojejunal (G-J) feeding tubes are placed in infants and children who refuse to eat or are unable to eat enough to have normal growth. Although often intended as temporary short-term solutions to medical complications, feeding tubes can become a permanent method for eating. While tube feeding routinely saves the lives of children who have long term food refusal, continuation of tube feeding can be hard for patients, caregivers, and families. At the current time there are few treatments for helping children move from tube to oral feeding. Some patients may be treated with the help of inpatient programs such as a combination of medical and behavioral techniques to train children to eat orally. These programs typically require hospital stays of 2-4 months. By doing the current study the investigators hope to learn if the investigational drug amitriptyline is helpful in moving children from tube to oral feeding, and to look at whether or not the treatment of pain helps with this transition.

Timeline

Start

2010-08

Primary completion

2014-12

Completion

2014-12

Publications

• Garcia AM, Beauchamp MT, Patton SR, Edwards S, Dreyer Gillette ML, Davis AM. Family mealtime behaviors in children who are tube fed and preparing to transition to oral eating: A comparison to other pediatric populations. J Health Psychol. 2022 Mar;27(4):1014-1020. doi: 10.1177/1359105320982034. Epub 2020 Dec 18.
• Davis AM, Dean K, Mousa H, Edwards S, Cocjin J, Almadhoun O, He J, Bruce A, Hyman PE. A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Outpatient Protocol for Transitioning Children from Tube to Oral Feeding: No Need for Amitriptyline. J Pediatr. 2016 May;172:136-141.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2016.02.013. Epub 2016 Mar 3.

Drugs

Indications