| Obesity is one of the largest problems in the United States today. Obesity is not only implicated in numerous health conditions, but billions of dollars are spent yearly treating the sequelae of obesity. One group of people impacted most severely by the problem of obesity are the mentally ill. Not only do the mentally ill frequently lack motivation to exercise and eat in a healthy way, but many of the psychotropic drugs used to treat mental health conditions weight gain as a side effect. Mindfulness for stress reduction has become an accepted treatment for many conditions, including anxiety, chronic pain and depression. Mindfulness has recently been used with promising results for binge eating. Binge eating is a disorder common among obese individuals. This paper describes the use of a mindful eating intervention on a group of self-identified binge-eating women taking some type of psychotropic drug who are between the ages of 18-64 years. |
