Patients with Schizophrenia Do Not Demonstrate Worse Outcome After Sleeve Gastrectomy: a Short-Term Cohort Study

PurposeThe aim of this study was to compare surgical and psychiatric outcome andweight loss in schizophrenia patients with mentally healthy patients after sleeve gastrectomy.Materials and MethodsA cohort study design was selected, comprising patients with schizophrenia with mentally healthy patients who underwent sleeve gastrectomy and were adherent to a follow-up at least 12months after surgery.ResultsSeven schizophrenia(5 male, 2 female) and 59 (12 male, 47 female) mentally healthy patients were included in this study. A laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy was performed safely in all 66 patients. The calculated excess weight loss (%EWL) showed no significant differences in both groups and reached 51.6815.84% for schizophrenia group and 60.68 +/- 19.95% for mentally healthy group at 24-month follow-up (p=0.33). The decrease in the HbA1c levels within 2years after sleeve gastrectomy was similar in both groups (p=0.79, 0.88, 0.82, 0.73 for surgery time, time of 6-, 12-, and 24-month follow-up respectively). The psychiatric status of the patients of the schizophrenia group was stable in all cases and no exacerbation of psychiatric symptoms was observed during time of follow-up. Furthermore, an overall significant improvement of the self-estimated mood and satisfaction was observed in both groups (Manova: f=1.26, p<0.0001).ConclusionsThe results 2years after sleeve gastrectomy in stable patients with schizophrenia and after an adequate psychological evaluation were encouraging and comparable to the outcome in mentally healthy patients.