The label is supposed to improve awareness and treatments for the condition, but similar proclamations about alcoholism and other addictions haven’t been so successful. Rejecting the advice of one of its own committees, the American Medical Association (AMA) will now classify obesity, which affects about one-third of Americans, as a disease, similar to diabetes and cancer. While there is no standard criteria for such definitions, the designation could contribute to de-stigmatizing obesity, lead to wider coverage of treatments by insurers — Medicare and other insurers currently exclude reimbursement for weight-loss drugs — and greater willingness by doctors to address and treat the condition among their patients. “Recognizing obesity as a disease will help change the way the medical community tackles this complex issue that affects approximately one in three Americans,” the AMA said in a statement from board member Dr. Patrice Harris,  “The AMA is committed to improving health outcomes and is working to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes, which are often linked to obesity.” As admirable and well intentioned as those goals are, however, there is little precedent that disease labeling will make them achievable. A recent review of studies on conditions like addictions and other psychological problems that can have genetic causes found that such classification generally does reduce the blame heaped on people with the disorders, both by themselves and society. But the labels also increased pessimism about recovery, probably because people assume that as diseases with biological and genetic bases, they are immutable. One study on alcoholism, for example, found that the more people bought into the idea that addiction was a “chronic relapsing disease” over which they were “powerless,” the worse their relapses were. Although the label didn’t increase relapse itself, it made it worse if it did occur — and the majority of people with alcoholism will relapse at least once. There is also some danger that making obesity a disease may lead to some unintended, and potentially harmful, consequences. Consider the example of alcoholism; in 1956, the AMA … Continue reading Viewpoint: Defining Obesity as a Disease May Do More Harm Than Good