Weight loss programs: failing to meet ethical standards?
Ethical concerns raised by the treatment of obesity include the following: the question of whether obesity treatment is accurately described as therapy or as research given its low percentage of long-term success; the need for standardized disclosure of the possibility of harms vs the low probability of benefits; the status of voluntary and informed consent as a meaningful model of patient cooperation in treatment in light of reported findings of "treatment addiction" as a recognized syndrome; and the policy issues raised by the absence of uniform standards for and regulatory oversight of weight loss programs.
Lustig
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Center for Ethics, Medicine, and Public Issues, Houston, TX 77030.
D032763:Behavior Control; D030881:Disclosure; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent; D009765:Obesity / Q000628:therapy*; D011640:Public Policy; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012926:Social Control, Formal; D015431:Weight Loss