INTRODUCTION

Obesity is a high prevalent disease with great impact in life quality and can become a risk factor to development of other health problems. Most of treatment programs usually focus on control of diet and exercise, with minimal long-term impact. The causal and maintenance role of psychological and emotional distress has been showed in recent literature. Including these factors in a multidisciplinary treatment could improve interventions effectiveness.

Obesity Unit of Psychiatry Department was created to offer first-class medical treatment to patients with obesity in a district of Madrid (Vallecas) since 2011. The main objective is to obtain diagnostic information about the patients in order to decrease the prevalence of obesity in our community.

We are presenting the data of the 100 first patients referred to our Unit, 5 people were excluded due to exclusion criteria. Sociodemographic and clinical data were obtained from evaluation interviews and were complemented by a battery of psychometric tests.

The average BMI is 41 (SD 6.8). The average age, 41.7 (SD 12.7) and 76 patients were women. 85% of the patients were not able to maintain weight loss. 50% of the patients had consulted a physician before. 95% of patients have taken a pharmacological treatment. No one had followed a combined treatment, addressing physical and emotional aspects together.

A specific multidisciplinary treatment is recommended in these patients. In addition to pharmacological treatment, our integral attention program also includes a psychoeducational group one a month and a psychotherapy group one a week.