TREATMENT OF OBESITY BY PERSONALITY CLASSIFICATION-ORIENTED PROGRAM

It is apparent that personality is related to the patho genesis of obe sity, and that understanding the personality of the patient may be a k ey to successful treatment of the disease. Using the Rorschach test an d interviews by a psychiatrist, the types of personality were classifi ed into four groups according to the healthiness of personalities. The judgment of healthiness was based mainly on the scores obtained from the Rorschach test This classification revealed that the occurrence of mental and physical symptoms during therapy with a very low calorie d iet (VLCD) and subsequent rebound of bodyweight were more frequently o bserved in patients with relatively less healthy personalities, We use d this classification to adapt our program to treat obese patients. In this program severe diet restrictions were applied to patients with r elatively healthy personalities. These restrictions were applied with modifications to patients with less healthy personality, because sever e restrictions would be possibly very stressful for them and would bri ng about an undesirable reaction. For strengthening the patients' moti vation for therapy, the significance of body weight reduction was expl ained in different ways to patients with different types of personalit y. The target of body weight reduction, reward for patients with succe ssful weight reduction, and, the duration of therapy were setup differ ently for patients with different personalities types. The results sho wed that body weight rebound one or two years after treatment was redu ced with the personality-oriented therapy program compared to that obs erved with the previous conventional therapies. Also, the incidence of psychological problems was remarkably decreased.