WELL-BEING AND MORBID-OBESITY IN WOMEN - A CONTROLLED THERAPY EVALUATION

Objective: Morbidly obese individuals are unlikely to reach and mainta in normative weights. Thus, interventions aimed at alleviating corolla ry problems, independent of attempts at weight loss, are appropriate. A cognitive group treatment program (CT) was developed which incorpora ted a nondieting approach, regular exercise, and use of alternative co ping skills. Weight loss per se was not a focus of the intervention. T he purpose of the current work was to evaluate this program in a contr olled,. comparative treatment outcome study. Method: Sixty-two obese w omen with a history of treatment failures were randomly assigned to th e CT program, a behavior therapy weight loss program (BT), or a wait-l ist control group. Results: For CT participants, depression, anxiety, and eating-related psychopathology decreased significantly over the co urse of treatment while perceptions of self-control increased; BT and control subjects showed no significant changes in these variables. Wom en in both active treatment groups lost significant amounts of weight, while members of the control group showed a nonsignificant increase i n weight. At 6-month follow-up, treatment benefits were maintained. Di scussion: Findings suggest that interventions not directly aimed at we ight loss can enhance psychological well-being and thus may be appropr iate for some obese women. (C) 1998 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.