HOW CBT (COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY) CAN MODULATE NEGATIVE EMOTIONAL FACTORS AS ANXIETY OR DEPRESSION IN OBESE PATIENTS

Abstract

Emotional factors have great influence on eating habits and increase the risk of obesity (1). Few studies demonstrate that patients affected by binge eating disorder felt negative emotions before overeatings; the main emotions reported were anxiety, then sadness and tiredness. Emotional eating is related to the stress (2,3), so when subjects feel anxiety and depression, is more probable that they use food as modulator of their emotions, in this way the weight develops fast with all risks of obesity. The obesity is often attended by a specific syndrome called metabolic syndrome; the main symptoms are insulin resistence, hyperinsulinemia, not-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, central obesity, hyperuricemia, hypertension; this clinic condition predisposes to cardiovascular diseases (4). So the aim of our study is to observe how CBT can help to manage negative emotions as anxiety e depression (5) and in this way modulate the emotional eating. We began to select a sample of obese subjects, and gave them few questionnaires to evaluate the degree of anxiety and depression (STAI/BDI), the level of self-esteem (BASIC SE), and if there was a diagnosis of Binge Eating Disorder (BED) by a Binge Eating Scale (BES). The first results show a significant relation between anxiety and depression, low level of self-esteem, and their relation with BED. We analyzed the results after an year of treatment with CBT and dietotherapy and we found that patients without BED had a more significant loss of weight, In the subjects with BED the binges disappeared and the self-esteem increased. BIBLIOGRAPHY DallmanMF. “Stress-induced obesity and the emotional nervous system.” Trends EndocrinolMetab. 2010 Mar; 21(3):159-65. Epub 2009 Nov 18. MashebR.M., Grilo C.M.“Emotional overeating and its associations with eating disorder psychopatology among overweight patients with Binge Eating Disorder”. International Journal of Eating Disorders; 2006 39: 141-146. Marci E. Gluck “Stress response and binge eating disorder” Appetite 46 (2006) 26–30 G. M. Reaven (1988). Role of insulin resistance in human disease. Diabetes, Banting lecture 37: 1595-1607 Baumesteir, R.F., Campbell, G.D., Krueger, J.D., Vohs, K.D.,“Does high self-esteem caus