[Significance of the depressed state in obese people: definition of a risk group]

This study concerns frequency and meaning of depressive conditions in obese patients. The examination was carried out with two groups of 39 obese subjects, 30 women and 9 men. The patients with depressive symptoms differed highly significantly from those without depressive symptoms in relation to the age of the beginning of their overweight. They became overweight preponderantly as adults, striking frequently in correlation with the situations of emotional stress. This would support the hypothesis of this study, that depressive states as an organism variable in this group of patients has essential influence as well for the onset as for the maintenance of the overweight.