Key clinical point: Patients with obesity and depression might benefit from a collaborative-care intervention.

Major finding: Mean BMI decreased from 36.7 to 35.9 for patients who received the collaborative-care intervention, compared with no change in BMI for patients who received usual care alone. Depressive symptoms also improved in the intervention group, with mean 20-item Depression Symptom Checklist scores decreasing from 1.5 at baseline to 1.1 at 12 months, compared with a decrease from 1.5 at baseline to 1.4 at 12 months in the usual-care group.

Study details: A randomized controlled trial of 409 patients with depressive symptoms and obesity who underwent usual care or usual care plus a collaborative-care intervention to improve weight loss and depressive symptoms.

Disclosures: This study was funded in part by Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and an award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. One of the authors, Philip W. Lavori, PhD, reported receiving personal fees from Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute. The other authors reported no relevant financial disclosures.