Childhood Sexual Abuse, Depression, and Family Dysfunction in Adult Obese Patients: a Case Control Study

One hundred significantly overweight patients sequentially applying to a very low calorie diet program were interviewed to learn how the onset of obesity correlated with other life events. Compared with a control group of 100 always-slender adults, the obese applicants were found to have significantly increased presence of a number of variables. Suicide of a parent, sibling, spouse, or child occured in 6% of the obsese group as compared with 5% of the control group. Further findings are discussed. (13 refs)