The Affective Responses of Obese Patients to Weight Reduction: A Differentiation Based on Age at Onset of Obesity

It is suggested that the behavioral response to weight reduction is dependent upon age at onset of obesity.

Abstract

The affective responses to weight reduction of five severely obese patients with adult onset of obesity were studied during a long-term hospitalization. Anxious and depressive symptoms, measured by objective rating and self-rating procedures, did not increase with weight loss. These results are in contrast to earlier findings from this laboratory of disturbances in affective responses following weight loss for patients with juvenile-onset of obesity. These results suggest that the behavioral response to weight reduction is dependent upon age at onset of obesity.