Obesity Is Not A Mental Illness



Before, I get into the promised review of the obesity papers in the January issue of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, I would like to set the stage by clarifying that I certainly do not consider obesity to be a mental illness.

Thus, I very much opposed the notion (proposed by some) to include obesity as a diagnosis in the the upcoming 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and was very much relieved to see this proposal being rejected.

Although the brain is the ultimate regulator of energy balance and there is a significant and relevant relationship between mental health and the propensity for weight gain (as will be discussed in forthcoming posts), obesity itself is hardly a mental illness. In fact, the vast majority of overweight and obese individuals do not have any mental health problems that would be in any form or fashion differentiate them from the non-obese population.

This situation, however, is markedly different in the ‘weight-loss-seeking’ obese population, where an increased prevalence of mental health problems has been well documented. This is why clinicians dealing with obese patients, particularly those seeking obesity treatment need to be well versed in the diagnosis and basic principles of managing mental health problems.

What is also indisputable is the fact that for patients with mental health problems, weight management can prove particularly challenging.

When we consider how difficult implementing and maintaining the often complex regimens for weight management can be for most people, it should be no surprise that adding the additional burden of mental illness can make such efforts almost impossible.

Add to this the fact that many of the psychiatric medications can further promote weight gain, and we can easily see why obesity has become such an important challenge in light of the increasing use of such medications (whether indicated or not).

Remember, that in this discussion we are talking about significant and major mental health problems like depression, bipolar disorder, psychosis, anxiety, PTSD, or addictions. We are not talking about simple ‘overeating’ associated with stress, boredom, social pressures, or other factors that have little to do with severe mental health problems and should rather be considered completely normal and natural human behaviours.

Thus, it is important that in any discussion of the clinically important relationship between obesity and mental illness, we make sure that we do not add the stigmal of the latter to the already widespread stigma of the former.

In other words, while mental health problems can undeniably contribute to or complicate obesity, let us by no means assume that everyone with excess weight must somehow have a mental health problem – the vast majority of overweight and obese individuals do not.

Nonetheless, clinicians need to be well aware of this relationship, be able to identify it where it exists, and provide or refer individual obese patients, for whom this may well be a problem, to the appropriate services.

I would certainly love to hear from any readers who have experienced that addressing their mental health issues did indeed help them better manage their weight or from readers where their mental health problems are making contributing to their weight gain.

AMS
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan