[Psychological problems in obesity (author's transl)].

The MMPI was administered to 209 obese women and 72 obese men before onset of a weight reduction regime. Obese subjects differ in a variety of MMPI-standard-scales from the standard population as well as from a control group of healthy women: 1. Scales Hypochondriasis (Hs) and Hysteria (Hy) have significant higher values for the obese. This somatic impairment grows in the group of obese women with increasing age and obesity. In men, scale Hs corresponds to the degree of overweight but the youngest male age group (up to 19 years) has a Hs-peak as well as men above 35 years of age. 2. Higher than normal values for obese men and women in scales Depression (D) and Psychasthenia (Pt) in the obese point towards emotional upset. 3. Obesity does not decrease Hypomania (Ma) values for men or women; to the contrary: obese men felt more active than the standard population. With growing age women had a decrease in Ma-values.