Post-Bariatric Patients Are Up to 50% More Likely to Develop Psychiatric Complications

ORLANDO, Fla., May 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The notorious observation of an increased prevalence of psychiatric complications after bariatric surgeries raises an alert. Surgeries for obesity were shown to increase the risk of suicide by up to 4 times, illicit substances abuse by 3 times, new-onset alcohol addiction by 2 times, and depression by more than 30%, as explained by the endocrinologist Flávio Cadegiani., MD, MSc, PhD, and PhD professor at the Federal University of São Paulo.

One study reveals that bariatric surgery increases the risk of self-mutilation and suicide by 380%. Another one shows a suicide risk between 225% and 348% after bariatric surgery. Among those patients without any pre-existing alcoholism, addiction, or depression, the chance of depression increased between 31% and 115% after bariatric surgery, as shown by one other study.

The incidence of alcohol and drug abuse has also been investigated. The likelihood of a patient without previous problems with alcohol to develop alcoholism after the bariatric procedure is up to 15%, which means that 1 in 7 patients that undergo surgical procedures for obesity will develop alcoholism. A multidisciplinary clinical approach to obesity treatment can successfully prevent these cases and reduce these numbers, eventually changing people's lives, as alleged by Doctor Flávio Cadegiani, the head of Corpometria Institute.

"We cannot believe that bariatric surgery is all about happiness and universal solution for the obese population. In a study of my own published at the BMC Obesity journal, and also presented at Obesity Week, we demonstrated that clinical approaches to obesity may have better long-term outcomes than surgical options. In the study, among 43 patients with formal recommendation for bariatric surgery that opted for a last attempt of a clinical treatment prior to the surgery, 93% (40 patients) managed to avoid bariatric surgery," explains Cadegiani.

The projection is that by 2025, about 2.3 billion individuals will be overweight, among which more than 700 million will present obesity. "Perhaps we need to improve the standard of care for post-bariatric patients, and better prepare the candidates for this surgery. We should not treat them as mere numbers and profits. That's why I encourage everyone to consider these sharp changes in the surgical management of obesity," says Dr. Cadegiani.

One must understand that obesity is a consequence and an important sign of a tendency of compulsive behaviors, and to seek treatments for this problem, before treating patients surgically. "At least 80% to 90% of candidates for bariatric surgery meet the criteria for Binged Eating Disorders (BEDs). And these patients are barely treated before the bariatric procedure," says Dr. Flávio Cadegiani.

Media Contact:
Rodrigo Lins
+1 (407)777-5491
[email protected]

SOURCE First Center for the Prevention of Bariatric Surgery in Latin America - Corpometria