Weight Management: Comprehensive Weight Management Inc. is...

Weight Management: Comprehensive Weight Management Inc. is growing, filling a need for helping those who are afflicted with so-called “morbid obesity,” a clinical condition in which patients are more than 100 pounds overweight.

The company reports that it now has 10 contracts with hospitals across the United States to treat patients suffering from the disease.

“Things are moving quickly for us,” said Bruce K. Nelson, president of Irvine-based Comprehensive Weight Management.

In the two years since its founding, Comprehensive Weight Management has grown to a $1.4 million-a-year enterprise. The company contracts with hospitals to provide referral and marketing services and psychiatric and psychological counseling for obese patients, most of whom are women.

The majority of women in need of drastic weight reduction have been sexually or physically abused as children, Nelson said, and need intense counseling as well as surgical treatment for weight reduction.

“We try to address the reasons why they are obese,” Nelson said. “Mostly, they are psychological reasons.”

The privately held company signed a contract Dec. 15 with United Western Hospital in St. Paul, Minn,. whose physicians perform such surgical procedures as stomach and intestine stapling for Comprehensive Weight Management.