Weight‐reducing treatments are associated with an improvement in depression, functional health status, and quality of life: A meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials
Authors' conclusion
Weight-reducing treatments were associated with a beneficial effect on quality of life and functional health status and a reduced risk of depression, without any safety signal for serious or non-serious psychiatric adverse events.
Study context
- Population
- RCTs performed for weight loss
- Comparison
- Weight-reducing intervention vs control
- Outcome
- Incidence of overall and specific psychiatric adverse events
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
Psychiatric adverse events: depression
Estimate (95% CI)
Interventionvs ControlI2 = 0
MH-OR, major depression 0.45(0.21–0.94)
Interventionvs Control
MH-OR, overall depression 0.72(0.54–0.97)
Between Intervention and Control
MH-OR, anxiety 1.04(0.78–1.39)
Between Intervention and Control
M-H OR, suicidal ideation 0.87(0.44–1.70)
Between Intervention and Control
M-H OR, suicide 0.87(0.44–1.70)
Further pooled results
Depression by magnitude of weight loss (subgroup analysis)
- Weight loss >10% associated with lower incidence of depression than smaller weight loss
- P = 0.04
- No difference in depression between different interventions
Functional health status
- Improvement in SF-36 Mental, SMD-IV
- 0.45 [0.37, 0.52] (95% CI per abstract)
- Improvement in SF-36 Physical function, SMD-IV
- 0.29 [0.14, 0.44]
- Improvement in IWQOL Lite Physical function, MD-IV
- 3.96 [1.60, 6.32]
Safety
| Outcome | Estimate | |
|---|---|---|
| Serious and overall psychiatric adverse eventsBetween Intervention and Control | M-H OR, serious psychiatric AEs 1.07 (CI 0.78–1.47) | |
| Serious and overall psychiatric adverse eventsBetween Intervention and Control | MH-OR, overall psychiatric AEs 1.09 (CI 0.89–1.34) | |
| 0.512Ratio (log scale) |
Original publication
Weight‐reducing treatments are associated with an improvement in depression, functional health status, and quality of life: A meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials. Diabetes Obes Metab. Published 23 October 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →