The Role of Psychotherapy in the Treatment of Patients with Non- alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Background And Aims: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a metabolic disease with extensive multi- organ involvement, whose extra-hepatic manifestations include diabetes mellitus type 2, cardiovascular disease, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), chronic kidney disease, and polycystic ovary syndrome. Our hypothesis was that there was a strong psychological component in NAFLD and OSA suffering patients and that psychotherapy would be helpful in the treatment of the mentioned diseases.

Methods: Of 144 initially selected patients (with NAFLD, obesity and OSA), 32 patients agreed to undergo psychotherapy, and 31 therapy-naive NAFLD and OSA patients agreed to participate as controls.