title: Obesity and psychoanalysis.
abstract: Seventy-two psychoanalysts collected information on 84 obese patients and on a control sample of 63 of their patients of normal weight. Despite the fact that obesity was the chief complaint of only 6% of the obese patients, weight losses at 42 months of psychoanalytic treatment compared favorably with those after traditional medical efforts: 47% of the obese psychoanalytic patients lost more than 9 kg, and 19% lost more than 18 kg. There was also a striking decrease in the percentage of obese patients suffering from body image disparagement--from 44% to 12%, an unexpectedly good result for this chronic and intractable disorder.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001007:Anxiety / Q000628:therapy; D001828:Body Image; D001835:Body Weight; D003863:Depression / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy; D012649:Self Concept