Emotional problems during weight reduction: advantages of a combined behavior therapy and antidepressive drug therapy for obesity.

Depressive symptoms may increase in a subgroup of obese individuals shortly after beginning a weight-reducing diet. Therefore an additional antidepressive medication should have a positive effect on the course and results of therapy. This hypothesis was tested in three different institutional settings, with identical therapeutic programs. In this study there were 23 obese women. Therapeutic strategies were concerned with an increase of self-control over eating behavior, the improvement of social skills, and the establishment of new problem-solving abilities. Doxepin was used as the anti-depressant in a double blind procedure. Our results seem to support the hypothesis of this study: depressive symptoms markedly increased soon after the beginning of weight-reduction; additional antidepressive medication helped to improve the symptoms and in the long term had a positive effect on the rate of weight loss.

[Panic attacks and cardiac phobia]. / Panikattacken und Herzphobie.

In this study 36 patients with cardiac phobia were examined prior to hospitalisation and 29 of them were re-examined after 2.5 years. An analysis of the clinical pictures showed that all of the patients met the DSM III criteria for panic disorder. The follow-up results indicated that the anxiety attacks often recurred despite treatment; on the other hand, the patients felt significantly less threatened by the symptoms and consequently showed less help-seeking behaviour. The attack symptomatology was characterized by a uniform picture and thus played, at best, a limited role in predicting the course of the illness. According to DSM III cardiac phobia is listed under the somatoform disorders as hypochondriasis; this seems to be an unfortunate decision and ought to be revised.

Prognosis of cardiac phobia.

The 36 inpatients who entered this prospective study were admitted to hospital because of cardiac phobia. Their treatment consisted of a behavior therapy program. Twenty-nine of them could be reexamined after 2 1/2 years: 41% were free of symptoms during more than 75% of the follow-up period; 59% suffered recurrences of their anxiety. One patient had committed suicide. A lower educational level, being single, and interpersonal difficulties and conflicts were the sociodemographic factors associated with a poor prognosis; a long pretreatment period of illness and the presence of depression or agoraphobia on admission were significantly more frequently correlated with an unfavorable outcome. The onset sequence of depression, agoraphobia and anxiety attacks was also of prognostic relevance.