Results of human growth hormone use studied

From 1963 to 1985, human growth hormone was derived from human pituitary glands from cadavers. Researchers in the United States at the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studied 7,700 individuals who received this type of human growth hormone during those years to treat growth hormone deficiency. The researchers were concerned about the individuals developing Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a fatal brain-wasting disease. They found that 26 individuals in the group died from the disease, but acknowledge that more cases may develop over time. Human growth hormone has, since 1985, been made synthetically and thus no longer carries the risk of disease transmission.