Weight concerns, body dissatisfaction and illicit drug abuse in women and girls

With obesity at an all time high, national initiatives have been put into place to aid in reducing body weight and or BMI in adults and children. As eager health professionals with such an enormous charge, we sometimes do more harm than good. This session will discuss how weight concerns and body image issues affect many women and adolescent girls including unwarranted use of supplementation (such as diet pills and energy products), dangerous dieting practices, disordered eating behaviors and illicit drugs (particularly methamphetamine and other stimulants) often used as a method of self-treatment. In most substance abuse treatment programs, women make up more than half of the clients treated for meth. One study indicated five times the percentage of females than males attributed initial meth use to a desire to lose weight and more females than males reported using meth to get more energy. Dangerous dieting practices to lose weight after treatment often become gateways to recidivism. Researchers and extension professionals at the University of Nevada, Reno (Extension) and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas found that the majority of female clients in local substance abuse treatment centers (72%) had concerns that gaining weight could trigger a drug relapse. Most recovery programs target males and don't address health and weight related issues. Validating weight concerns in women, however, is critical to successful recovery. Incorporating positive body image and healthy lifestyles while eradicating focus on weight loss as core intervention strategies may prevent relapse in substance abuse treatment programs for women.