Psychosomatic Medicine 32:351-357 (1970)
© 1970 American Psychosomatic Society

Mental Illness in Lower Class Normal, Obese and Hyperobese Women

¹ Department of Psychiatry, State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine

Address for reprint requests: Dr. J. Holland, E. J. Meyer Memorial Hospital, Buffalo, NY 14215

Forty-eight white women from the lower socioeconomic class were interviewed. They were attending clinics at a county hospital because of problems other than obesity or psychiatric illness. Their weights ranged from normal to hyperobese. A semistructured interview, Spitzer's Mental Status Schedule, was held and a specialized medical history elicited information on eating habits. Three groups were formed: normal weight (mean 121 lb), obese (mean 182 lb) and hyperobese (mean 235 lb). On the Mental Status Schedule scores no significant mean differences were found among the groups, despite a wide range of scores in all groups. The specialized medical history noted that obese and hyperobese, compared to normal weight subjects, eat when not hungry, and when anxious and depressed. Obese and hyperobese subjects said they preferred to weigh more and more often reported a child with birth weight of over 9 lb. These women are more often the head of a household, and report husbands who weigh less than those of the normal weight group. Half the obese and hyperobese reported that onset of obesity occurred in adult life. Gross psychiatric disturbance was found with equal frequency in all 3 weight groups. These data suggest that it is hazardous to assume a uniform psychodynamic formulation for obesity, applicable to all irrespective of their social or ethnic backgrounds.