Depressed Women Can Lose Weight As Successfully As Others Do

Women with major depression were no less likely than were women without it to have successful results with a weight loss program, according to an article in the Winter 2009 Behavioral Medicine. Group Health Research Institute Senior Research Associate Evette J. Ludman, PhD, the study leader, concluded that weight loss programs should not exclude depressed people.

Dr. Ludman’s study included 190 female Group Health patients age 40 to 65 with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more: 65 with major depressive disorder and 125 without it. The women had not been seeking treatment, but they enrolled in a one-year behavioral weight loss intervention involving 26 group sessions. The intervention, developed at the University of Minnesota over the past 20 years, has proven at least as good as any other currently available non-medical treatment.

Some previous research had hinted that depression might worsen outcomes in behavioral weight loss programs. That’s why trials of weight loss interventions typically exclude people with major depression.

“We expected women with major depression to lose less weight, attend fewer sessions, eat more calories, and get less exercise than those without depression,” Dr. Ludman said. Read more