Promoting the management of weight reduction.

Many people try to lose weight. Health providers who try to help these people often feel frustrated, as do the patients, because long-term success is rarely experienced, especially for those patients whose weight is a serious medical problem. A new approach is offered in which the client assumes responsibility for weight loss, and the role of the health provider is to help the client become an increasingly independent manager of his or her own weight reduction. An instrument is offered that guides the clients through the planning, conducting, and assessing of their own actions.

Marital changes after intestinal bypass surgery.

A retrospective interview study was undertaken of 14 spousal pairs in which one member had undergone the intestinal bypass procedure for massive obesity. Much unanticipated marital discord occurred. Sexual problems were particularly troublesome and affected both members in the spousal pairs. The results point to the role of massive obesity as a selective and stabilizing factor in the marriages of this subset of overweight persons.