Abstract

PEREIRA, Cláudia  and  BRANDAO, Isabel. A psychopathological perspective of obesity. Arq Med [online]. 2014, vol.28, n.5, pp.152-159. ISSN 2183-2447.

The obesity is one of the most important health problems of the XXI century as it affects millions of people in the entire world and remains a major cause of mortality and morbidity. Beyond that, the psychiatric pathologies, as Depression and Anxiety, are rising significantly and have an impact in the quotidian of many individuals. The existence of positive association between obesity and mood disorders and anxiety disorders, with varying degrees of expression, seems to be a common finding in the literature. However, a major question remains: which are the mediators of this relationship? Several mechanisms of biological networks (immune-inflammatory, endocrine and hormonal changes) contribute to the co-occurrence of mood and anxiety disorders. Abnormalities in the inflammatory cascade, in the appetite regulating hormones (leptin, adiponectin and resistin) and in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis may be the correlation between psychiatric disorders and obesity. Furthermore, it is indispensable to take into consideration the psychological effects associated with obesity, such as low self-esteem and pathological coping mechanisms such as emotional eating. On the other hand, the use of drugs for treating psychiatric disorders and some genetics factors contribute positively to the association between obesity and mood and anxiety disorders. After the analysis of obesity psychopathology, it becomes fundamental to alert health professional to the presence of psychopathology in obese patients (and the other way around), mainly because the co-existence of this pathologies has repercussions on efficient treatment of patients.

Keywords : obesity; mood disorder; anxiety disorder; association; comorbidity.

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