Treating Obesity Co-Occurring With Depression

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Table of Contents

Problem
Intervention and Changes
Combined Treatment
Summary
References

Problem

The problem identified for the current project is obesity co-occurring with depression. This issue is crucial because the number of obese and depressed people in the US is steadily growing. According to the study conducted by Haregu et al. (2020), an obese person is almost 40 percent more likely to get depression than a person with a normal body mass index. The probability of a depressed person gaining excessive weight is 18 percent higher (Haregu et al., 2020). In most cases, the efficiency of obesity treatment is relatively low and commonly leads to the appearance of a comorbid mental health disorder – depression. The present project suggests an intervention that will help to improve the quality of care provided to such patients.

Intervention and Changes

The proposed treatment of obesity comorbid with depression consists of traditional treatment of obesity, behavioral therapy, and prescription of antidepressants in adverse cases when therapy is not enough. Besides, nurses and practitioners must fight the stigmatization of obesity and depression. The prejudice against people with excessive weight significantly worsens the quality of their life and even prevents them from getting medical care (Luck-Sikorski et al., 2018). Therefore, apart from applying the suggested recommendations on treating obese patients, medical personnel should get rid of bias toward obese people and show such patients a sincere desire to help.

Combined Treatment

Step 1: Traditional Treatment of Obesity

Now I will elaborate on the suggested intervention to treat obesity co-occurring with depression. The first step in treating this diagnosis is to decrease the body mass index through changes in diet and lifestyle. A nurse should COMMUNICATE with the patient to gather information not only on his health status and chronic conditions but also on his socioeconomic status and eating behavior because it is the only way to create a perfectly suitable and effective treatment plan (Molyneaux et al., 2016; Keshavarz et al., 2018). The specialist should also educate a patient on how to escape gaining excess weight in the future, how to choose food, cook nutritious, tasty, and healthy recipes, and increase the overall daily activity level.

Step 2: Identifying symptoms of depression

Excessive weight is only part of the major problem. While helping a person lose weight, a doctor should not forget to pay attention to a patient’s emotional state. A person might not always be aware of having depressive symptoms because he might justify low mood and apathy with a high workload, family issues, and health problems. However, a nurse could suggest a person take a survey for the presence of depressive symptoms. According to the manual developed by the American Psychiatric Association (2013), a person could be diagnosed with depression if he experiences no less than 5 of the symptoms that you could see on the screen for at least two weeks.

Step 3: Behavioral Therapy

Behavioral therapy is one of the most effective ways to treat depression. The main advantage of this therapy is that it changes a patient’s attitude to life and teaches him to cope with negative emotions. People with obesity commonly suffer from bias and bullying, and the therapist is the source of support. This part of the intervention is highly required because it assists individuals to cease to destroy themselves through negative thoughts and self-chastise. A person teaches to react to the same situation in a different manner. Nonetheless, if a person has several symptoms of depression, he should not be automatically prescribed antidepressants. Instead, antidepressants should be only taken by people whose depressive disorder is advanced and threatens their lives.

Summary

To conclude, a person diagnosed with obesity co-occurring with depression should be treated by several experts: nutritionists and therapists. However, these two doctors should maintain a dialogue on the health status of a patient and cooperate in creating an effective and multidimensional treatment plan. Besides, the medical personnel should be free from bias toward overweight people and respect the patients’ feelings. Still, the most critical inference that should be noticed is that specialists who treat excessive weight should not ignore the psychiatric dimension of this problem. At the same time, therapists should recommend overweight patients contact a nutritionist.

References

American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders. American Psychiatric Publishing.

Haregu, T. N., Lee, J. T., Oldenburg, B., & Armstrong, G. (2020). Comorbid depression and obesity: Correlates and synergistic association with noncommunicable diseases among Australian men.Preventing Chronic Disease, 17, 1-13. Web.

Keshavarz, S. A., Mostafavi, S. A., Akhondzadeh, S., Mohammadi, M. R., Hosseini, S., Eshraghian, M. R., & Chamari, M. (2018). Omega-3 supplementation effects on body weight and depression among dieter women with co-morbidity of depression and obesity compared with the placebo: A randomized clinical trial.Clinical nutrition ESPEN, 25, 37-43. Web.

Luck-Sikorski, C., Schomerus, G., Jochum, T., & Riedel-Heller, S. G. (2018). Layered stigma? Co-occurring depression and obesity in the public eye.Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 106, 29-33. Web.

Molyneaux, E., Pasupathy, D., Kenny, L. C., McCowan, L. M. E., North, R. A., Dekker, G. A.,… & SCOPE consortium. (2016). Socio-economic status influences the relationship between obesity and antenatal depression: data from a prospective cohort study.Journal of affective disorders, 202, 124-127. Web.

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