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11 - Depression and obesity

from Part 2 - Depression and specific health problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 September 2009

By
Lucy Cooke  and
Jane Wardle
Edited by
Andrew Steptoe
Lucy Cooke
Affiliation:
Health Behaviour Unit Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK
Jane Wardle
Affiliation:
Health Behaviour Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK
Andrew Steptoe
Affiliation:
University College London
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Summary

Introduction

It is estimated that at least 300 million people worldwide are obese and two to three times more are overweight [1]. Rates vary enormously from country to country, but the situation in the USA is particularly alarming: current figures suggest that over 65% of US adults are overweight, of whom over 30% are obese (body mass index [BMI] ≥ 30) and almost 5% are severely obese (BMI ≥ 40) [2]. Although associations between obesity and physical health consequences such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, as well as all-cause mortality, are well documented [3–6], the psychological impact of obesity remains poorly characterised.

In the heyday of psychosomatics, obesity was believed to be a consequence of either misinterpreting emotional arousal as hunger or using food as a form of self-medication in order to cope with distress [7]. Obese people were assumed to have extensive psychopathology, and the treatment of choice was psychotherapy. However, when larger-scale epidemiological studies were carried out, it became clear that there were no systematic differences in either personality or rates of psychiatric illness between obese and normal-weight adults [8]. With time, the psychosomatic theory lost ground as a basis for management of obesity, but interest in the link with depression has lived on. Recent years have seen evidence that stress is associated with adiposity [9, 10], and both cortisol and leptin have been implicated in linking the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis and adipose tissue [11, 12].

Keywords

beck depression inventorybrief symptom inventoryBrownelldepressionobesityobese individualsFriedman
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Depression and Physical Illness , pp. 238 - 262
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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  • Depression and obesity
    • By Lucy Cooke, Health Behaviour Unit Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK, Jane Wardle, Health Behaviour Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK
  • Edited by Andrew Steptoe, University College London
  • Book: Depression and Physical Illness
  • Online publication: 17 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511544293.012
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  • Depression and obesity
    • By Lucy Cooke, Health Behaviour Unit Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK, Jane Wardle, Health Behaviour Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK
  • Edited by Andrew Steptoe, University College London
  • Book: Depression and Physical Illness
  • Online publication: 17 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511544293.012
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  • Depression and obesity
    • By Lucy Cooke, Health Behaviour Unit Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK, Jane Wardle, Health Behaviour Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK
  • Edited by Andrew Steptoe, University College London
  • Book: Depression and Physical Illness
  • Online publication: 17 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511544293.012
Available formats
×