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Medical Professionals in the Treatment of Obesity

Arthur Frank, MD

JAMA. 1993;269(16):2132-2133.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

TWENTY years ago, I changed course in my internal medicine practice and decided, rather deliberately, to work on the problem of obesity. My friends, my colleagues, and my family thought I was crazy. The warnings were clear. "Don't risk your credibility and your career." "Don't venture into a part of medicine that no one takes seriously." "Don't move into the world of quacks and charlatans." My brother, a thoughtful, professorial cardiologist, assessed the situation in most negative terms. "The guys who deal with obesity are the sleaziest guys in medicine. Pills and shots!" he shouted. Another friend, also comfortably cloistered in academia, could not imagine how I could possibly want to spend my time working with fat, middle-aged ladies: "What on earth is there to talk about?"

Taking the Plunge

Even in my naive youth I was not oblivious to the risks involved in dealing with obesity. Although my credentials . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the George Washington University Obesity Management Program, The George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, DC.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to the George Washington University Obesity Management Program, Suite 208, 3 Washington Circle NW, Washington, DC 20037 (Dr Frank).

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