Adherence to Psychiatric Follow-up Predicts 1-Year BMI Loss in Gastric Bypass Surgery Patients

Objective The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of adherence to postoperative recommended psychiatric follow-up on weight loss in morbid obesity patients with psychiatric disorders 1 year after gastric bypass. Methods Three hundred eighteen morbidly obese patients were retrospectively reviewed. They were divided into four groups according to preoperative psychiatric evaluations and adherence to psychiatric follow-up 1 year after their bypass surgery. The first group included patients who did not meet the referral criteria (NMRC). The second group consisted of patients who did not meet the psychiatric diagnostic criteria (NMDC). The third group was patients who met criteria for a psychiatric disorder and were nonadherent (NA) to psychiatric follow-up. The fourth group consisted of patients who met criteria for a psychiatric disorder and were adherent (A) to psychiatric follow-up. Results The A group exhibited higher % change in BMI than the NA and NMRC groups at 1 year after bypass surgery. Regression analyses to examine the effects of the grouping variable on % change in BMI were performed by controlling the effects of age, gender, educational level, and preoperative BMI. The regression coefficient for the grouping variable was 0.175 (p=.003) at the 6-month and 0.133 (p=.027) at the 1year % change in BMI. Conclusion Our preliminary data suggest that adherence to postoperative psychiatric follow-up is associated with greater postoperative weight loss. However, evidence from studies with a longer follow-up is required to justify this therapeutic approach.