Treatment of overweight.

18 motivated 19-41 yr old participants who responded to an advertisement concerning the formation of a weight reduction group were divided randomly into 3 groups: (a) a control group; (b) Treatment 1, involving the application of learning theory plus group therapy; and (c) Treatment 2, involving the same principles as Treatment 1 plus mutual help principles. Both treatment groups lost significantly more weight over a 7-wk period than did the control group, but little difference existed between the 2 treatment groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developmental psychopathology in infancy: Illustration from the study of maltreated youngsters.

Infancy is a period of rapid developmental change, characterized by transitions and qualitative reorganizations within and among biological, social, emotional, cognitive, and linguistic systems. Consequently, it is argued that it is inappropriate to focus on discrete symptomatology to infer the presence of nascent or incipient infant psychopathology. Rather, disorders in infancy are best conceptualized as relational psychopathologies, that is, as consequences of dysfunction in the parent–child-environment system. Research in the area of child maltreatment is used to illustrate the developmental psychopathology perspective as it applies to relational disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Testing the cognitive content-specificity hypothesis with anxious and depressed youngsters.

A. T. Beck's (1976) cognitive model of psychopathology stipulates that each emotional disorder can be characterized by a cognitive content specific to that disorder. Although other aspects of Beck's theory have been empirically supported with youngsters, few have tested the applicability of the cognitive content-specificity hypothesis to children. 45 youngsters in Grades 4–7 who met diagnostic criteria of the DSM-III—R for a depressive or anxiety disorder and 18 controls completed measures of anxious and depressive cognitions. Analysis revealed that the valence of depressive cognitions played an important role in distinguishing the anxious group from the depressed and mixed groups. Specifically, negatively worded items did not differentiate between groups as well as positively worded items. The anxious, depressed, and mixed depressed-anxious groups were not differentiated on the basis of the anxious cognitions. The results provide partial support for Beck's cognitive content-specificity hypothesis and the broader positive–negative affectivity construct. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relative effects of various word synthesis strategies on the phonics achievement of learning disabled youngsters.

Over a 2-day period, 105 children (84–216 mo old, WISC scores 67–231) were given lessons that provided direct instruction on a medial vowel sound, practice on monosyllabic words containing the sound, and specific transfer training on nonsense syllables. Word attack strategy was varied for the 5 treatment groups. Practice consisted of synthesis using initial bigrams and final consonants (co-g), initial consonants and final bigrams (c-og), a combination of initial and final bigram training, or letter-by-letter analysis and synthesis (c-o-g). The initial bigram strategy yielded significantly better performance on transfer words. This finding challenges popular approaches that emphasize rhyming patterns or letter-by-letter decoding. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Parent, teacher, and child ratings of problem behaviors of youngsters with serious emotional disturbances.

Method effects as a source of construct invalidity were evaluated for parent, teacher, and child ratings of problem behaviors among children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances. A multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) matrix consisting of 4 types of problems (i.e., internalizing, thought, attention, and externalizing), rated by 3 sources, was analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis. Ss were 489 youngsters, aged 8–18 yrs, who were classified as having serious emotional disturbances. Results indicated large method effects for each rater. These effects may represent either measurement artifact, true situational differences, or a combination of both. Modeling method effects is necessary to obtain unbiased estimates of the relationships between children's multiple problems and other variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of rational emotive therapy on overweight adults.

Therapy based on the rational emotive model (RET) was compared to an attention placebo group and a no-treatment control group in a controlled outcome study with 40 overweight Ss (mean age 37.7 yrs). The dependent measure was decrease in pounds overweight employing a 32 factorial design. Results show differential effects among the treatment groups with the RET group having the greatest reduction in overweight over an extended period of time. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinician's comment on treatment of childhood overweight meta-analysis.

Given the prevalence and urgency of the childhood overweight problem, pediatric providers are searching for evidence-based management to translate into clinical practice, particularly in primary care. There are numerous challenges to translation and therefore to more widespread adoption of childhood overweight treatment recommendations. In this article, the authors try to bridge this gap between childhood overweight treatment research and clinical care by discussing the current evidence-based recommendations through a clinical case and by examining the challenges of translation. Looking at this issue through the lens of a clinician, the authors consider the broader social context within which childhood overweight exists, and highlight areas for further translational work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of spouse involvement in the behavioral treatment of overweight women.

Assigned 68 overweight women (mean age 39 yrs) to 1 of 5 groups: (a) cooperative spouse, in which spouses were trained in modeling, monitoring, and reinforcement techniques; (b) wives alone, in which Ss underwent the basic behavioral program by themselves; (c) nonparticipating spouse, in which spouses were told not to participate in their wives' behavioral program; (d) alternative treatment; and (e) delayed treatment control. The cooperative spouse group lost significantly more weight than the alternative treatment at the 3-, 6-, and 12-mo follow-ups and significantly more weight than the wives-alone group at the final follow-up. Both the cooperative spouse and the nonparticipating spouse conditions maintained their weight losses at the final follow-up, whereas the wives-alone group regained some weight. The absence of significant differences between the cooperative spouse and the nonparticipating spouse conditions suggests that instructing spouses not to sabotage their wives' efforts may be as effective for long-term maintenance as actively training them to aid their wives. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Delivery of the overweight woman. Analysis of 115 patients

OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to assess the effect of weight gain during pregnancy on labor and delivery. Abnormal pregnancies were excluded from the study to avoid interaction with the management of labor. POPULATION AND METHODS: A retrospective monocentric case-control study was carried out. We analysed 115 pregnancies delivered in our institution between June 1994 and November 1994. The course of labor was studied in 2 groups of patients: a group of overweight patients and a control group. RESULTS: In the overweight patients, the frequency of induction of labor (25%) and of obstetrical analgesia (82%) was significantly higher than in the control group (respectively 7% and 64%), as well as the average duration of labour and the average duration of the rupture of the membranes. The rate of cesarean section was higher in the overweight patient group (16.7%) than in the control group (3.7%). The difference was not significant because of the small number of patients. CONCLUSION: These results show a more frequent requirement of induction of labour, analgesia, and cesarean section in overweight patients. This led us to propose a multidisciplinary management of overweight patients to minimize these different obstetrical risks during labor.     

Bias against overweight job applicants in a simulated employment interview.

This study assessed whether moderately obese individuals, especially women, would be discriminated against in a mock employment interview. Potential confounding factors were controlled by having 320 Ss rate videotapes of a job interview that used the same professional actors appearing as normal weight or made up to appear overweight by the use of theatrical prostheses. Results suggested that bias against hiring overweight job applicants does exist, especially for female applicants. Bias was most pronounced when applicants were rated by Ss who were satisfied with their bodies and for whom perceptions of their bodies were central to self-concept. The decision not to hire an obese applicant was, however, only partially mediated by personality attributions. Implications and limitations of these results are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Restraint theory and its applicability to overweight individuals.

Tested several aspects of restraint theory using 89 female college students in a 2–3 between-Ss design. The ice cream consumption of overweight and normal-weight restrained and unrestrained eaters was measured during a taste test. Prior to the taste test, half the Ss received a milkshake preload. Results reveal significant Weight by Restraint, Weight by Preload, and Restraint by Preload interactions. Unrestrained eaters consumed less after the preload than without it, whereas restrained eaters ate more. Overweight Ss ate less after the preload than without it, whereas normal-weight Ss ate slightly more. Among overweight Ss, unrestrained eaters ate more than restrained eaters, whereas among normal-weight Ss, the reverse was true. The significant Weight by Preload and Restraint by Preload interactions possibly reflect psychometric problems in the restraint scale. Numerically equivalent scores may indicate less "true" restraint in overweight than in normal-weight Ss. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nondieting versus dieting treatment for overweight binge-eating women.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of nondieting versus dieting treatments for overweight, binge-eating women. Participants (N?=?219) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: diet treatment (DT), nondiet treatment (NDT), or wait-list control (WLC). DT received a balanced-deficit diet reinforced with behavioral strategies. NDT received therapy designed to help participants break out of their dieting cycles. Treatment in both conditions was administered in weekly groups for 6 months, followed by 26 biweekly maintenance meetings, for a total of 18 months of contact. At 6 months posttreatment, DT lost 0.6 kg while NDT gained 1.3 kg. Both treatment groups reduced their Binge Eating Scale scores significantly more than WLC. At 18-month follow-up, both treatment groups experienced weight gain but maintained similar reductions in binge eating. Results indicate that neither intervention was successful in producing short- or long-term weight loss. Therapist biases, which may have affected treatment integrity, and other methodological issues are discussed in relation to the small weight losses achieved. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Permanence of two self-managed treatments of overweight in university and community populations.

Assigned 94 males and females from community and university samples (mean ages = 20.8 and 42 yrs, respectively) to 2 self-management treatments, nonspecific, or no-treatment controls. At post-treatment, self-management conditions differed from controls in percentage of overweight lost. At 3-mo follow-up, the simpler self-management procedure differed from the nonspecific control on both dependent variables. The more complex self-management treatment differed only on percentage of body weight lost. At 6-mo follow-up, differences were not significant. Treatments * Time of Assessment analysis on body weight indicated a significant interaction and significant losses during treatment and gains during posttreatment for both self-management conditions. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pavlovian galvanic skin response conditioning in overweight and normal weight women.

20 overweight and 20 normal weight female undergraduates underwent habituation, classical conditioning, and extinction of the GSR. Overweight Ss were consistently more responsive to the CS (tone) during all 3 phases of the study and were somewhat more responsive to the UCS (shock). Rates of response attenuation and enhancement, however, were not different during any phase. Results are generally consistent with research which demonstrates that overweight Ss are more externally stimulus bound than normals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The stigma of overweight: Affective consequences of attributional ambiguity.

Attributing negative outcomes to prejudice and discrimination may protect the mood and self-esteem of some stigmatized groups. Thus, the overweight may be low in self-esteem because they blame their weight, but not the attitudes of others, for negative outcomes based on their weight. In an experiment, 27 overweight and 31 normal weight college women received either positive or negative social feedback from a male evaluator. Relative to other groups, overweight women who received negative feedback attributed the feedback to their weight but did not blame the evaluator for his reaction. This attributional pattern resulted in more negative mood for these overweight women in comparison with other groups. Dimensions of stigma that may account for differences in the tendency to attribute negative outcomes to prejudice, and implications of these findings for weight loss programs and psychotherapy for the overweight, are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Managing the overweight and obese. A low fat approach

Conventional weight loss methods usually fail in the long term. An approach that focuses on a low fat diet together with moderate increases in physical activity shows promise. Its most attractive feature is that patients do not have to starve themselves. This approach can be used in general practice.     

Correlates of body image dissatisfaction among overweight women seeking weight loss.

Predictors of body image dissatisfaction (BID) among obese people are poorly understood. In 79 obese women seeking weight reduction, associations with BID of self-esteem, youth teasing, adult teasing, and internalization of sociocultural appearance standards (ISAS) were studied. Analyses revealed that only self-esteem, adult teasing, and ISAS predicted BID. Results highlight the importance of adulthood self-esteem and interpersonal--cultural context--rather than childhood experiences--in predicting adulthood BID. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in the lumbosacral segment of the spine due to overweight in adults. Preliminary remarks

The Authors studied postural changes in the lumbosacral segment of the spine due to severe obesity in 28 young adults of both sexes. In particular, the preliminary degree of pelvic rotation caused by overweight was evaluated by studying the lumbosacral angle (LSA) amplitude, changes in normal static equilibrium of the spine and lumbar hyperlordosis in relation to the lordotic angle (LA) amplitude. Body Build Index (BBI), the lumbosacral angle and the lordotic angle were compared to determine if any correlations existed among the three. Even though the patient number was limited, pathologic values for both the LSA and the LA were found in all 28 subjects. The Authors found no correlation between LSA and LA increase regarding BBI; on the contrary, a correlation was evident between LSA increase and LA. A decrease in the LSA and LA values took place after reduction in body weight, after therapeutic intervention. The Authors believe that a one year follow-up is necessary to evaluate any long term decrease in the values of the above mentioned angles.