Behavioral treatment of obesity: the current status.

The introduction of a behavioral approach to the treatment of obesity ten years ago stimulated a large amount of research and clinical application, and has had an influence upon psychological treatment far beyond the field of obesity. This research has demonstrated that behavior therapy represents a significant improvement over traditional methods of treatment of mild and moderate obesity. Furthermore, ten years of investigation have introduced into psychological treatment research designs and a methodological sophistication without precedent in this field. Although behavior therapy has advanced the treatment of obesity, its results are still of limited clinical significance. Weight losses have been modest and the variability in results large and unexplained even long-term maintenance of weight loss, which, it was originally hoped, would be a particular benefit of the behavioral approach, has not yet been established. On possibility of increasing the effectiveness of behavioral treatments is to combine them with other measures--dietary and pharmacological. Three recent efforts at combining treatments show promise.