Michele D. Levine

Family-Based Treatment of Severe Pediatric Obesity: Randomized, Controlled Trial

OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the efficacy of family-based, behavioral weight control in the management of severe pediatric obesity. METHODS: Participants were 192 children 8.0 to 12.0 years of age (mean ± SD: 10.2 ± 1.2 years). The average BMI percentile for age and gender was 99.18 (SD: 0.72). Families were assigned randomly to the intervention or usual care. Assessments were conducted at baseline, 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months. The primary outcome was percent overweight (percent over the median BMI for age and gender). Changes in blood pressure, body composition, waist circumference, and health-related quality of life also were evaluated. Finally, we examined factors associated with changes in child percent overweight, particularly session attendance. RESULTS: Intervention was associated with significant decreases in child percent overweight, relative to usual care, at 6 months. Intent-to-treat analyses documented that intervention was associated with a 7.58% decrease in child percent overweight at 6 months, compared with a 0.66% decrease with usual care, but differences were not significant at 12 or 18 months. Small significant improvements in medical outcomes were observed at 6 and 12 months. Children who attended ≥75% of intervention sessions maintained decreases in percent overweight through 18 months. Lower baseline percent overweight, better attendance, higher income, and greater parent BMI reduction were associated with significantly greater reductions in child percent overweight at 6 months among intervention participants. CONCLUSIONS: Intervention was associated with significant short-term reductions in obesity and improvements in medical parameters and conferred longer-term weight change benefits for children who attended ≥75% of sessions.

Relationship of psychiatric disorders to 6-month outcomes after gastric bypass

BACKGROUND Although most bariatric surgery patients undergo a preoperative psychological evaluation, the potential effect of psychiatric disorders on weight loss is not well understood. We sought to document the relationship of preoperative psychiatric disorders to the 6-month outcomes after gastric bypass. METHODS The Structured Clinical Interview for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) was used to assess current and lifetime Axis I clinical disorders, as well as Axis II personality disorders, before surgery. We used linear regression models to examine the relationship of psychiatric disorders to postoperative weight-related outcomes. RESULTS The sample (n = 207) was 83.1% female and 92.7% white. The preoperative body mass index (BMI) was 51.4 +/- 9.6 kg/m(2) and age was 45.8 +/- 9.5 years. After adjusting for the initial BMI, gender, race, and age, a lifetime Axis I disorder was associated with a smaller decrease in BMI (t = -3.7, df = 205, P <.001) at 6 months after surgery. The results of separate models for each class of disorder indicated that lifetime mood disorder was associated with a smaller decrease in BMI (t = -3.7, df = 205, P <.001), as was lifetime anxiety disorder (t = -2.6, df = 205, P = 0.009), but substance and eating disorders were not. In this sample, current Axis I clinical disorders and Axis II personality disorders were unrelated to outcomes at 6 months. Similar overall results were found when the percentage of weight loss and excess weight loss were predicted. CONCLUSION The results of our study have shown that patients who have ever had an Axis I clinical disorder, especially mood or anxiety, exhibit poorer weight outcomes 6 months after gastric bypass than those who have never had an Axis I disorder. Additional research with larger samples is needed to replicate these findings and examine more fully the effect of current clinical disorders and personality disorders on weight loss. Nevertheless, our results suggest that patients with current or past disorders might benefit from close monitoring or psychosocial intervention to improve their short-term outcomes. However, a greater duration of follow-up is needed to identify predictors of longer-term weight control.

Addressing Women's Concerns about Weight Gain Due to Smoking Cessation

Specific concerns about weight gain following smoking cessation inhibit attempts to quit smoking, especially in women. However, adjunct interventions to prevent weight gain after cessation have generally been successful only in attenuating, rather than preventing, weight gain. More aggressive weight control adjuncts may be necessary to prevent cessation-induced weight gain. On the other hand, weight control programs have not been found to improve long-term smoking abstinence and, in fact, may actually impede abstinence, necessitating a search for alternative approaches to addressing weight concerns. Since the typical amount of weight gain is essentially trivial from a health standpoint, particularly when compared with the health benefits of quitting smoking, the most appropriate clinical strategy may be to combat the weight concerns themselves rather than the weight gain. A second alternative approach is to focus all treatment efforts on smoking cessation alone, to avoid placing excessive burdens on participants resulting from attempting simultaneous changes in multiple health behaviors (i.e., smoking and those related to weight). The rationales for these three clinical approaches to addressing concerns about weight gain-more effective weight control, direct reduction in weight concerns by cognitive-behavioral treatment, and smoking cessation only-are presented, followed by descriptions of the adjunct treatments based on these approaches currently being evaluated in a clinical outcome study with women trying to quit smoking.

Children of mothers with borderline personality disorder: identifying parenting behaviors as potential targets for intervention.

Children of mothers with borderline personality disorder (BPD) should be considered a high-risk group given the wide array of poor psychosocial outcomes that have been found in these children. This article describes the parenting strategies that might explain the transmission of vulnerability from mothers with BPD to their offspring, from infancy through adolescence. We conclude that oscillations between extreme forms of hostile control and passive aloofness in their interactions with their children may be unique to mothers with BPD. We provide an overview of interventions that are currently recommended for mothers and family members with BPD, namely attachment therapy and psychoeducational approaches. On the basis of an integration of the empirical findings on parenting and child outcomes, as well as from the review of current approaches to intervention, we conclude with recommendations for treatment targets. We argue that mothers with BPD need psychoeducation regarding child development and recommended parenting practices and skills for providing consistent warmth and monitoring, including mindfulness-based parenting strategies.

Weight Gain Prevention among Women

Objective: Women 25 to 45 years old are at risk for weight gain and future obesity. This trial was designed to evaluate the efficacy of two interventions relative to a control group in preventing weight gain among normal or overweight women and to identify demographic, behavioral, and psychosocial factors related to weight gain prevention.

The characteristics of women smokers concerned about postcessation weight gain.

Concern about weight gain after quitting smoking is common among women, however, little is known about the characteristics of women concerned about this weight gain. We characterized concerns about smoking and weight, smoking behaviors and eating attitudes among weight-concerned women smokers. Women (N= 219) were participants in a larger trial comparing different approaches to treating postcessation weight gain concerns, and endorsed considerable concern about postcessation weight gain. Women completed assessments of smoking behavior, nicotine dependence and eating attitudes prior to beginning treatment. Although weight-concerned women smokers expected to gain 16.5 lb after quitting, most were willing to tolerate a weight gain of only 5 lb. A substantial number expressed unwillingness to gain any weight at all. However, weight-concerned women did not have elevated nicotine dependency or aberrant eating attitudes. Thus, although weight-concerned women smokers expected to gain large amounts of weight after quitting, they expressed a willingness to tolerate only minimal weight gain. The discrepancy between expected and tolerable weight gain may undermine efforts to quit smoking in this group of women.

Optimizing long-term weight control after bariatric surgery: A pilot study

BACKGROUND Although bariatric surgery is associated with significant overall weight loss, many patients experience suboptimal outcomes. Our objective was to document the preliminary efficacy of a behavioral intervention for bariatric surgery patients with relatively poor long-term weight loss and to explore the factors related to outcome at an academic medical center in the United States. METHODS Patients with a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m(2) who had undergone bariatric surgery ≥ 3 years before study entry and had <50% excess weight loss were enrolled. The participants were randomly assigned to a 6-month behavioral intervention or wait list control group. The assessments were conducted at baseline (before intervention) and 6 months (after intervention) and 12 months (6-mo follow-up). RESULTS On average, the participants (n = 36) had undergone surgery 6.6 years before study entry. The average age was 52.5 ± 7.1 years, and the BMI was 43.1 ± 6.2 kg/m(2); most participants were women (75%) and white (88.9%). The intervention patients had a greater percentage of excess weight loss than did the wait list control group at 6 (6.6% ± 3.4% versus 1.6% ± 3.1%) and 12 (5.8% ± 3.5% versus .9% ± 3.2%) months. However, the differences were not significant and the results varied. The intervention patients with more depressive symptoms (P = .005) and less weight regain before study entry (P = .05) experienced a greater percentage of excess weight loss. CONCLUSION Behavioral intervention holds promise in optimizing long-term weight control after bariatric surgery. More research is needed on when to initiate the intervention and to identify which patients will benefit from this type of approach.

Eating behavior following stress in women with and without bulimic symptoms

Objective: This study examined the effects of an interpersonal stressor on subsequent calorie intake in females with (N=20) and without (N = 20) significant bulimic symptomatology.Method: Subjects participated in two laboratory sessions that differed according to experimental condition (stress versus no stress), completed self-report measures of mood and anxiety before and after the experimental task, and were provided with an array of snack foods after each session.Results: Counter to the hypothesis, women with bulimic symptoms did not differentially increase their intake when exposed to stress. However, results for the intake of each macronutrient indicated that both bulimic and control women increased their consumption of carbohydrates following the stressor. Thus, stress was related to increased carbohydrate consumption by all subjects but did not differentially affect the consumption of women with bulimic symptoms.Conclusions: It may be that women with bulimic symptoms are not differentially vulnerable to eating in response to stress or that current laboratory paradigms are unable to detect differences in eating following a stressor.

Exercise in the treatment of binge eating disorder.

OBJECTIVE In this study, we examined the effects of an exercise intervention in the treatment of obese women with binge eating disorder (BED). METHOD Subjects were randomized to one of two 6-month treatment programs that included an identical exercise component (n = 44) or to a delayed treatment control condition (n = 33). Exercise level, binge eating frequency, and depressive symptomatology were assessed pre- and posttreatment. RESULTS Women who received active treatment reported significantly greater increases in their weekly exercise frequency than did control subjects. At posttreatment, 81.4% of subjects who had received treatment were abstinent from binge eating. Compared to women who were not abstinent at posttreatment, abstinent women evidenced significant changes in exercise frequency and caloric expenditure. However, weight loss and improvements in depressive symptomatology were not related to exercise participation. DISCUSSION These results suggest that exercise may be an important aspect of BED treatment and useful in promoting abstinence from binge eating.

Bupropion and cognitive behavioral therapy for weight-concerned women smokers.

BACKGROUND We previously documented that cognitive behavioral therapy for smoking-related weight concerns (CONCERNS) improves cessation rates. However, the efficacy of combining CONCERNS with cessation medication is unknown. We sought to determine if the combination of CONCERNS and bupropion therapy would enhance abstinence for weight-concerned women smokers. METHODS In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, weight-concerned women (n = 349; 86% white) received smoking cessation counseling and were randomized to 1 of 2 adjunctive counseling components: CONCERNS or STANDARD (standard cessation treatment with added discussion of smoking topics but no specific weight focus), and 1 of 2 medication conditions: bupropion hydrochloride sustained release (B) or placebo (P) for 6 months. Rates and duration of biochemically verified prolonged abstinence were the primary outcomes. Point-prevalent abstinence, postcessation weight gain, and changes in nicotine withdrawal, depressive symptoms, and weight concerns were evaluated. RESULTS Women in the CONCERNS + B group had higher rates of abstinence (34.0%) and longer time to relapse than did those in the STANDARD + B (21%; P = .05) or CONCERNS + P (11.5%; P = .005) groups at 6 months, although rates of prolonged abstinence in the CONCERNS + B and STANDARD + B groups did not differ significantly at 12 months. Abstinence rates and duration did not differ in the STANDARD + B group (21% and 19%) compared with the STANDARD + P group (10% and 7%) at 6 and 12 months, respectively. There were no differences among abstinent women in postcessation weight gain or weight concerns, although STANDARD + B produced greater decreases in nicotine withdrawal and depressive symptoms than did STANDARD + P. CONCLUSIONS Weight-concerned women smokers receiving the combination of CONCERNS + B were most likely to sustain abstinence. This effect was not related to differences in postcessation weight gain or changes in weight concerns. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00006170.