Psychiatric aspects

Abstract

Obesity is currently considered as a medical disease but not as a mental disease per se. However, the recommended approach to assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation of patients suffering from obesity is multidimensional and interdisciplinary. In the last two decades, the clinical picture called Binge Eating Disorder has received an increasing attention from both researchers and clinicians and has contributed to the development of a bio-psycho-social approach to obesity. Night eating and emotional eating are two other patterns of disordered eating that deserve attention. The prevalence of obesity in people diagnosed as having a mental illness is very high. Most psychotropic drugs are associated with the potential to induce obesity and obesity-related disorders but iatrogenic weight gain is only a component of the obesity-mental illness association that is a double factor of social stigma and disability. Obesity and mental disorder each accounts for substantial burden of disease, social prejudice, and discrimination and internalized stigma. A multifaceted relationship links psychopathology, obesity, social discrimination, and disability with circular connections.