Obesity and mental health in the young : a two-way street?

In the last decade or so there has been an increasing awareness of theassociation between weight changes, mental health and psychotropicmedications. The relationship is rather complex with changes in weightoccurring as part of many psychiatric conditions including depression,eating disorders, ADHD, anxiety disorders and also just as part ofstressful periods for an individual. The relationship gets more complexwith medications especially Second Generation Antipsychotics (SGAs)used in the treatment of psychoses. There is a clear association with the use of medications, weight gain and medical morbidity. A big need of thehour is to look at pragmatic and informed approaches to intervention inthese situations when weight gain becomes a commonly encounteredaccompaniment of psychiatric treatment. A preventive and earlyintervention focus is critical in the comprehensive management to avoidphysical co-morbidity. This clinical review attempts to address some ofthese issues with a specific focus on metabolic syndrome.