The Contribution of Julio Licinio to New Group Program To Address Depression and Obesity Simultaneou

The mind and brain theme of SAHMRI (South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute) is testing the performance of a novel group program that has not been introduced anywhere around the world to deal with depression and obesity simultaneously.

Australia’s Biggest Health Burden Is Depression and Obesity

Many Australian people are facing trouble in maintaining a healthy lifestyle because of depression and obesity. Majority of Australian adults are overweight and around 1 million Australians are suffering from depression. A number of treatment options available, but, most of them fail to target the links between these two problems simultaneously.

The introduction of new group program tries to address both the problems simultaneously. The sole motive of this program is to improve the physical and mental health of the people by adopting healthy habits to support a happier, more active and meaningful life.

About The New Group Program

To develop this program, SAHMRI’s Mind and Brain Theme has selected strategies from a list of different psychological treatments to help people in analyzing themselves in a better way to maintain their healthy lifestyle.

A person has to attend a two-hour group session every week for around 2.5 months to participate in this group program and each session focuses on new strategies. Furthermore, a person has to attend some group sessions at SAHMRI for assessment and follow-up purposes.

A famous health psychologist within the Mind and Brain theme said that many Australian people, nowadays, struggle with their obesity and depression problems. In addition to this, she further added to the conversation that "People think, ‘just to feel better, losing the weight will serve the purpose’, however, this is not always true. It is important to note that there are several mechanisms running behind the problem that needs to be addressed. To get rid of depression, you need to first reduce your body weight. We just anticipate that our developed program will help the people to reduce the weight."

Mind and Brain theme’s senior research fellow added that there is a direct relationship between obesity and depression. Professor Julio Licinio has been now, named as senior vice president and dean of the College of Medicine at Upstate Medical University. Professor Licinio, the leader and Psychiatry Professor within Mind and Brain Theme at Flinders University, added that because of depression, people may show some tendency to lose weight or an increase in appetite. He further added that the side-effects of taking antidepressants may also increase anxiety or a condition of low mood. Obesity usually brings an insignificance and failure feeling.The new group program works on both the feelings that surround weight loss and food while exploring the depression impact in the process.