Investigation of psychiatric comorbidity in obese patients

In this study, it is aimed to investigate whether patients diagnosed as obese have a comorbidity of any psychiatric disorders and comorbidity of psychiatric disorders with severity of obesity, to examine the characteristics of obese patients who have comorbidity with psychiatric disorders, other chronic disorders seen with obesity process and possible comorbid psychiatric disorders with these chronic disorders.Our research group included 85 patients (66 female, 19 male) who met the research criteria and diagnosed with obesity according to BMI scores and 60 (41 female, 19 male) non-obese control patients who applied to Afyon Kocatepe University School of Medicine ANS Hospital Department of Internal Medicine Policlinic between October 2012 and December 2012. These patients were administered sociodemographic form and SCID-I psychiatric screening test.According to the DSM-IV criterias; 60% of the obese patients and 20% of the non-obese control group had psychiatric disorders. Major depressive disorder was the most common disorder in the obese group with the ratio of 27.1%. No significant correlation was found between obesity severity and SCID-I diagnoses.In our study, when obese and control groups are compared; higher rates of psychopathology, especially depressive and anxiety disorders, were seen in obese group. It was found that patients with chronic disorders are more likely to have obesity and comorbid psychiatric disorders. For these reasons, it would be suitable approach that the patients admitted to any of the outpatient clinics due to obesity should be consulted to outpatient psychiatry clinics.Key words: Obesity, psychiatric disorders, depression, anxiety, chronic disorders.