FRIDAY, Nov. 15, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- Most obese people who want radical gastric bypass surgery to reduce their weight have some form of mental health problem, and they need to be evaluated before having surgery, a new study says.
The study, publshed in the current issue of Obesity Surgery, was done by psychologists and surgeons at the Center for Weight Reduction at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.
It included interviews with 115 people who were candidates for radical gastric bypass surgery, which reduces the size of the stomach. The researchers found that 70 percent of the 115 surgical candidates had current or past mental disorders.
Specifically, they found the surgical candidates had a 56 percent lifetime prevalence rate for depressive disorders. The general population has a lifetime prevalence rate of 17 percent. The researchers also found that 17 percent of the candidates had anxiety disorders.
"There is a high degree of psychopathology in this population, which could influence their ability to make informed consent and/or their reaction to the surgery and subsequent weight loss," the authors write.
The mental health aspect of obesity surgery is a topic that receives little discussion, but it's increasingly relevant as more and more people have radical surgeries for obesity, the authors say. More research is needed to study the effect of psychological factors on the outcomes of these surgeries.
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