Impulsivity and Emotional Factors in Obesity: A Preliminary Study

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of obesity with impulsivity and emotional factors. Met-hods: Forty-eight obese participants included in the study were compared with 48 normal-weight controls. The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I), Eating Attitudes Test (EAT), Beck Depression Scale (BDS), and the Barrat Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11) were administered to all participants. Re-sults: Forty-eight obese participants were split into two groups: with regard to presence of binge eating disorder - binge eating group (22 subjects - 19 females and 3 males) and non-binge eating group (26 subjects - 25 females and 1 males). No difference was detected between the groups in terms of impulsivity scores (p>0.05). Twenty-five of the 48 subjects with obesity were diagnosed with depressive disorder according to the DSM-IV criteria. Eight of the 48 control subjects had depressive disorder. Eating Attitudes Test and Beck Depression Scale scores were statistically significantly higher in the obese group than in the control group (p<0.05). We also compared the impulsivity scores between the depression and non-depression groups where impulsivity scores were found to be significantly higher in the depression group than in the non-depression group (p<0.05). Similarly, in the obese group, impulsivity scores of subjects with more elevated depression scores were significantly higher than those with lower depression scores (p<0.05). Conc-lu-si-on: The foremost finding of this study was determination of a stronger relationship between obesity and emotional traits than the relationship between obesity and impulsivity traits. In the current study, we also observed high impulsivity scores in the depression group. This result was associated more with the relationship between depression and impulsivity than with the relationship between obesity and impulsivity. Further studies with larger samples are required. (Arc-hi-ves of Neu-ropsy-chi-atry 2012; 49: 14-9)