No correlation among expressed emotion, anxiety, stress and weight loss in patients with overweight and obesity.

The onset of some types of obesity may correlate with specific familial relational patterns, and expressed emotion (EE). The aim of this study is to address the current gap in the literature about EE and obesity, assessing EE in a sample of patients with overweight or obesity and their relatives. A further objective is to assess patients' weight loss, patients' and relatives' anxiety, perceived stress and their possible correlation with EE and diet compliance. A total of 220 patients with overweight or obesity and 126 relatives were recruited. Patients' baseline body mass index (BMI) was negatively correlated with educational level, but we failed to find any correlation between BMI and the other variables assessed. We found a positive correlation between EE median and stressful life events, as well as between median EE and state and trait anxiety. Our results seem to suggest that other factors than the psychological ones we investigated may play a role in treatment adherence and outcome in patients with overweight and obesity.