[Prevalence of psychiatric cases in overweight or obese patients attended in a hospital outpatient clinic].
OBJECTIVE
It has been recently shown that psychiatric disorders are associated with obesity. However this association has not been studied in overweight/obese patients at a hospital setting in our country.


METHODS
We have studied 333 consecutive patients who were referred to our hospital outpatient clinic with overweight or obesity. Individuals with prior diagnosis of psychiatric disease were excluded from the study. Well validated auto-administered questionnaires were employed to identify psychiatric cases (Goldberg Health Questionnaire, GHQ, with a cut-off point of 5/6) and eating disorders (Eating Disorders Inventory, EDI, bulimia subscales with a cut-off point of 6/7).


RESULTS
The prevalence of pathologic results in the GHQ was 47.1%, and the prevalence of pathologic results in the EDI was 5.8%. There were no differences after subgroup analysis when patients were classified according to their grade of obesity, but women presented a higher prevalence of psychiatric cases than men (p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed an influence of female gender on the scores of the administered questionnaires (p < 0,01 in all of them) and of body mass index on the depression subscale of GHQ and on EDI (p < 0,001 in both).


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of psychiatric cases in overweight/obese patients referred to a hospital setting is high, and higher in women than in men.
Vázquez
Clotilde
C
Unidad de Nutrición Clínica y Dietética, Servicio de Endocrinología y Nutrición, Hospital Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, España.
Alcaraz
Francisca
F
Balsa
José A
JA
Zamarrón
Isabel
I
Arrieta
Francisco
F
Botella Carretero
José I
JI
D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D002032:Bulimia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009765:Obesity / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology*; D010045:Outpatients; D050177:Overweight / Q000523:psychology*; D015995:Prevalence; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D012737:Sex Factors; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires