Obesity Treatment: Psycological & Surgical - Essay Example

OBESITY TREATMENT: PSYCOLOGICAL & SURGICAL Faculty Table of Contents I. Introduction II. Obesity and Causes of Obesity III. Surgical Treatment IV. Psychological Treatment V. Conclusion Reference I. Introduction This paper deals with obesity and its treatment processes. The first section of the paper describes obesity and causes of obesity. Obesity is one of the common problems in most of the developed countries. This leads to several other health problems and psychological disorders. This can be treated by two ways. The first is the surgical treatment. There are three kinds of surgical treatments like restrictive, mal-absorptive and combined method. The second is the Psychological treatment. This is a stepwise continuous process of helping the patient to deal with obesity problem. II. Obesity and Causes of Obesity Obesity is a term used for a condition in which an individual accumulates excess fat on the body. This accumulation of fat can be due to overeating, consumption of more calories or less physical activities. Obesity results in many psychological and physiological problems. It affects the psychology of an individual by reducing self esteem, depression and others. Obesity occurs when a person consumes more calories than they actually use. This imbalance differs from person to person and therefore the exact cause of obesity is thought to involve other factors as well. Genetic, environmental, psychological, and regulatory factors may all contribute in varying degrees to developing obesity. 1 The problem of obesity is growing around the globe. In the developed countries the obesity problem is considered to be a serious issue of concern for various professionals from the medical and governmental sector. According to news appeared on BBC in the year 2000 obesity claimed 30,000 lives annually in England alone. Obesity drains £2.5bn from society each year and unless effective action is taken, one in five men and 25% of women could be obese by 2005, a Commons Public Accounts Committee report suggests. 2 Causes of Obesity: There are various factors which contribute to obesity or results in obesity. These factors can be genetic factors, environmental factors, psychological factors, regulatory factors, or sex or age of an individual. Each of these factors will be discussed below: Genetic Factors The role of genetics is very important in one’s life. A child gets number of characteristics from its biological parents. The genes can be active or dominating even in the second or third generation of any individual. Various studies have indicated that there is a correlation between the body weight and structure of parents and their children. The role of genetics in the development of obesity will vary from individual to individual based on some other factors as well like lifestyle and behavioural factors. Environmental and Social Factors There are various environmental factors which lead to development of particular lifestyle of an individual. One of the main reasons of the increase in obesity in world’s most developed countries is the change in lifestyle. These changes include all the factors from eating habits to the involvement in energy consuming activities. The activities in which one burns calories reduced. From entertainment to working conditions people are spending more time in front of screens be it computers or Televisions. One can change his lifestyle and eating habits and improve his health by weight loss. Psychological Factors The emotional status of an individual is one of the contributing factors to the obesity. People tend to overeat in response to various unfavourable emotional statuses such as boredom, hopelessness, anger, sadness, anger and many others. Sometimes people binge to eat. This is more common in overweight people than that of normal people. The compulsive eating or greedy eating habit results in losing control over the eating and ultimately results in higher consumption of calories or fatty products. In such conditions any kind of obesity treatment program will fail. The habit of responding to unfavourable condition by eating is very common. Individuals doing that need proper psychological and mental support in order to come out of that. Regulatory Factors Human body is a complex system. Various functions are influenced by hormones and various chemicals. Apart from it there are certain medical conditions in which body tend to gain weight. These are low thyroid hormone levels, Cushings syndrome disorder, Prader-Willi-Syndrome disorder, neurological disorders (brain tumours or infections of the brain), medications including corticosteroids e.g. prednisone, dexamethasone, others, some antidepressants, benzodiazepines e.g. alprazolam, diazepam and others; lithium, and antipsychotics. Sex and Age Weight gain is also related with sex and age of an individual. The basic structure of male and female body is very different. The deposits of fat are different in male and female body. Presence of more muscles in the male body results in burning more calories than females. People tend to lose more muscles with the age and gain fat. This is due to the metabolism of human body which lowers the calorie requirements. Obesity can be at any age of life in the childhood, teen age, adolescence, adulthood or old age. Obesity results in several health problems. These health problems are Diabetes, Hypertension, Obstructive sleep apnea and pulmonary hypertension, Heart disease, Stroke, Blood clots, deep venous thrombosis, and pulmonary emboli, Fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, Gastroesophageal reflux disease, Urinary incontinence Osteoarthritis, Gallstones, Colon cancer, Endometrial cancer and Depression. The treatment procedures become complicated for the obese person than as compared to the normal person. III. Psychological Treatment The psychological factors play an important role in obesity at each level whether it is a related to gain weight, making mind to lose weight or the process of losing weight. One of the main reasons of weight gain is some time emotional or behavioural. In psychological treatment of obesity following steps are involved: Step 1: Patient or care taker identifies the need of solving the obesity problem Step 2: Contacts psychologist or professionals or help/support centre. Step 3: Initial meeting with expert Step 4: Expert analyses psychological and behavioural aspects that may involve in increasing the obesity Step 5: Based on the analysis expert designs the best suitable plan for the patient Step 6: The plan is implemented and followed up The psychological treatments are based on the relationship and confidence therapist develops with the patients in order to share his/her thoughts and feelings. This process requires professional support from various professionals like therapist, dietician, and the physician. IV. Surgical Treatment The surgical option available for the Obesity treatment is “Gastrointestinal Surgery”. This alters the digestive process of an individual going through this surgery. Restrictive The restrictive surgeries aim to reduce the food intake by creating a restrictive passage at the upper part of the stomach into lower part. The passage of food from the stomach slows down from this process and stomach can hold small quantity of food. Steps in Restrictive Process: Pre-surgery process Diagnosis of patient Informing the patient about the treatment procedure Informing the patient about all the risk associated with the process Taking confirmation by the patient on paper Surgery Process Creating a small pouch at the oesophagus (Top portion of stomach) (It can be done in two ways: Adjustable gastric banding (AGB) and vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG)) Post Surgery Process: Patient need to visit doctor regularly so that any problem can be diagnosed the earliest Mal-absorptive (Intestinal Bypass Surgery) It is not recommended by the professionals now because it can lead to nutrients deficiencies. In this process the parts of small intestine is excluded from the digestive tracts. Small intestine is the part of digestive tract which is responsible for most of the important nutrients absorption. This process results in lowering the absorption of nutrients from the food tract. Mal-absorptive Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RGB) Biliopancreatic diversion (BPD) Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RGB): The process is based on the concept of bypassing food from the lower part of stomach to directly to the upper part of small intestine to reduce the amount of nutrients and calories body can absorb. A Y-shaped small section is attached to the upper part of stomach to bypass the lower section. Biliopancreatic diversion (BPD) In this process lower portion of small intestine is removed which completely bypass the duodenum and the jejunum. In this process high risk is there as compared to other processes hence it is preferred less. Combined This process combines the restrictive and mal-absorptive method. The partial by-pass surgery of intestine and restrictive surgery helps in lowering obesity in the individual going through this process. V. Conclusion Obesity is a growing and serious issue. This results in many medical and psychological problems. There are various factors responsible for obesity. These factors are genetic, environmental, emotional, age and sex related factors. If the main factor responsible for the obesity is known the treatment procedure can be decided. The treatment of obesity can be through surgical and non surgical methods. Each method is based on the patient and kind of obesity. Surgical treatment is followed in the morbid obesity. Non surgical method is a time taking and slow process. Reference Andrianopoulos, George D and Jon K. Mills.(1993) The Relationship between Childhood Onset Obesity and Psychopathology in Adulthood., Journal of Psychology. Volume: 127. Issue: 5. Publication Year: 1993. Page Number: 549 Cullen, Thomas J. and Mills Jon K. ,(1994) Locus of Control Orientation among Obese Adults in Outpatient Treatment for Obesity. Journal of Psychology. Volume: 128. Issue: 3. Publication Year: 1994. Page Number: 336. McKernan, B (2005) Obesity Treatment – An Update and Future Development retrieved on 1st November 2006 from http://www.touchbriefings.com/pdf/1438/McKernan.pdf Obesity Causes retrieved on 1 November 2006 from http://www.emedicinehealth.com/obesity/page2_em.htm Obesity Treatment overview retrieved on 1st November 2006 from http://ymghealthinfo.org/content.asp?pageid=P07877 Gastro-intestinal Surgery for severe obesity retrieved on 1st November 2006 from http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/gastric.htm#reading MENDELSO (1960) PSYCHOSOMTICS, The Treatment of Obesity retrieved on 1st November 2006 from http://psy.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/reprint/1/3/158.pdf Read More