Obese people may suffer from anxiety about their weight as severe as those with the psychological disorder, according to a new study.
The study, published in the journal Depression and Anxiety, looked at people who were considering having bariatric surgery related to their weight. About 135 of those were diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. It also profiled 40 who were classified as having SAD related to weight anxiety, and 616 with no medical record of psychiatric disorders.
The study found that those classified as having weight-related anxiety and clinically diagnosed anxiety were both rated as having poor social functioning.
"It could be that for individuals in which anxiety is related only to obesity, the change in social life functioning is more recent due to weight changes, and therefore, more distressing than for individuals who have experienced more generalized forms of social anxiety over a longer period of time, said lead researcher Kristy Dalrymple of Rhode Island Hospital.
Dalrymples findings conflict with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition. It characterizes those with weight-related SAD as having only a modified version of social anxiety disorder.
"These individuals could potentially benefit from treatment of this disorder and therefore, excluding the diagnosis of SAD in obese individuals who experience anxiety related only to their weight may hinder the identification of the disorder. We believe the results of this study support adoption of the proposed change to the medical exclusion for SAD criterion in the DSM-5, she said.
