Emotional status during weight reduction program.

The Hopkins Symptom Checklist was administered to 205 chronically obese patients to assess their emotional status. The results indicate that: a) the extent of mental problems in this population was not much different from other outpatient clinics; b) patients with a childhood or maturity onset of obesity had similar emotional profile; c) successful weight loss improved the emotional difficulties; d) no increase in emotional symptomatology occurred in patients before their dropout from the clinic; and e) clinic attendance and dieting did not affect the patients' mental status. These findings correlate well with the global clinical impressions obtained during interviews at each patient visit by the physician and/or clinical psychologist.