Development of an obesity counseling model based on a study of determinants of intentional sustained weight loss.

Background: Overweight and obesity are at epidemic proportions. This study examines the attitudes and actions of Oklahoma clinicians in obesity treatment, and the characteristics and perceptions of a subset of their patients who lost weight and were able to maintain weight loss.

Methods: Our study was a small mixed method study involving both surveys and interviews.

Emotional and biological stress measures in Katrina survivors relocated to Oklahoma.

Objectives: The authors assessed relocated Hurricane Katrina survivors' emotional and biological stress measures 20 months postdisaster to understand effects of both hurricane exposure and forced relocation on emotional and physical health.

Design: Psychiatric diagnoses, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive symptoms, and biological stress measures were compared for total survivor and control groups and subgroups by PTSD diagnoses and lifetime trauma.

Setting: Outpatient university psychiatry clinics in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.