Program aids weight loss in patients with mental illness

(HealthDay)—A behavioral weight loss intervention is effective among overweight and obese individuals with serious mental illness (SMI), regardless of their diabetes status, according to a study published online Feb. 14 in Diabetes Care.

Eva Tseng, M.D., M.P.H., from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues compared weight change from baseline to 18 months among participants with and without diabetes participating in the ACHIEVE randomized controlled trial. The authors reviewed data for 291 participants who were overweight or obese and had an SMI.

The researchers found that at 18 months, participants in the control group with diabetes lost 1.2 lb, compared with 0.8 lb among those without diabetes. Participants with diabetes in the intervention group lost 13.7 lb compared with 5.4 lb for those without diabetes. In the no diabetes and the diabetes subgroups, the corresponding net weight reductions (intervention minus control) were 4.6 lb and 12.5 lb, but the between-group difference in intervention effects was nonsignificant (absolute weight change: P-interaction = 0.08; percent weight change: P-interaction = 0.10).

"This finding is important because of the substantial burden of diabetes in patients with SMI and the dearth of information on the effectiveness of weight loss interventions in SMI patients with diabetes," the authors write.

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