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A study published in the journal of the American Medical Association has found that mental health conditions are more common in candidates for bariatric surgery, but depression and depressive symptoms vastly decrease post-surgery. The authors of the study, based in California, said, “Although our results should not be interpreted as indicating that surgery is a treatment for depression, severely obese patients with depression may gain psychological benefits in addition to the physical benefits already associated with surgery.” Researchers performed a meta-analysis on sixty-eight publications to determine the link between mental health and bariatric surgery. Fifty-nine studies reported mental health conditions pre-operatively; the remaining twenty-seven studies were concerned with associations between pre-operative mental health conditions and post-operative outcomes. The analysis revealed that both the rates of depression (19%) and binge-eating disorder (17%) in patients who were about to undergo bariatric surgery were more than double that of the general population (about 8% and 1- 5%, respectively). There was no conclusive evidence to link depression or binge eating disorder with post-operative weight loss. The findings have been reassuring to candidates of bariatric surgery diagnosed with a mental health condition. In seven of the studies analyzed, prevalence of depression in post-operative patients fell anywhere between 8% to 74%. The severity of depressive symptoms also went down by 40% to 70%. “I think there’s a general idea that mental health conditions might preclude patients from having bariatric surgery, because they’re either not very good surgical candidates or they won’t stand to benefit,” said lead author Dr. Aaron Dawes about the results. “We didn’t find that in the evidence. We really found no strong evidence that suggests that mental health conditions limit the weight loss after surgery.” The research shows how important it is for doctors to evaluate the mental health of people considering weight-loss surgery. "Doctors need to be aware that mental health conditions are common among these patients, and refer them for treatment if necessary," Dawes said.

posted at: 2016-03-29 08:49:00, last updated: 2016-03-29 08:49:48