title: Personality and morbid obesity. Implications for dietary management through behavior modification.
abstract: Psychological investigations have failed to reveal a distinct personality type or psychodynamic conflict pattern in moderately and massively obese persons. Many of the psychological problems noted in the obese such as anxiety, depression, and poor self-esteem seem to be the result of, rather than the cause of, the obese state. Morbidly obese persons share an addictive behavior pattern that is also seen in persons with other types of addictions. The extent of their obesity points to the strong substance abuse component of the eating disorder. Behavior modification programs aimed at changing problematic eating patterns and teaching self-management skills in relation to food consumption have been moderately successful and have been shown to result in a mean post-treatment weiht loss of seven to 16 pounds. However, the majority of morbidly obese persons will not lose enough weight to make this an effective treatment program for them.
mesh_terms: D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000178:diet therapy / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D010551:Personality