Implications of new diagnostic criteria for obesity on mental health comorbidities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52379/mcs.v10.767Abstract
A recent report published by The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology Commission entitled Definition and diagnostic criteria of clinical obesity (2025) represents a major conceptual shift in how obesity is defined and understood. Moving beyond the long-standing reliance on body mass index (BMI), the Commission proposes a framework that conceptualizes obesity as a multifactorial, chronic, and systemic disease, emphasizing its functional, metabolic, and organ-specific consequences rather than body size alone. This reconceptualization has profound implications not only for medical practice but also for mental health research and care.
For decades, BMI has served as the primary diagnostic proxy for obesity despite well-documented limitations. BMI does not capture body composition, fat distribution, metabolic heterogeneity, or psychosocial burden. Individuals with elevated BMI may present preserved physical and mental functioning, whereas others with lower BMI values may experience marked psychological distress and functional impairment related to adiposity. Consequently, the exclusive use of BMI has often obscured clinically meaningful subgroups and contributed to both underdiagnosis and overmedicalization.
By prioritizing disease impact over numerical thresholds, the concept of “clinical obesity” allows for a more nuanced understanding of obesity and its associated comorbidities. Importantly, this shift provides a valuable opportunity to integrate mental health more explicitly into obesity assessment and management, acknowledging that psychological distress may be both a consequence and a constituent dimension of the disease.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Julio Torales, Marcelo O'Higgins, Tomás Caycho-Rodríguez, Antonio Ventriglio, João Mauricio Castaldelli-Maia, Iván Barrios
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