Psychological profiles of candidates of bariatric surgery: An investigation of its outcome predictors

Obesity is significantly associated with decreased life expectancy of about 5–20 years depending on its severity and presence of other comorbidities. Bariatric surgery is considered the most effective long-term treatment for severe obesity and the only intervention that provides short-term and long-term weight loss and significant improvement of comorbid conditions in people with severe obesity. In this naturalistic study with a follow-up, potential candidates for bariatric surgery were initially assessed in the University Hospital of Messina and referred to the surgery unit. All patients who underwent these assessments from September 2021 to September 2022 were then called up for another round of assessment almost 1 year after completing the surgery, out of whom 34 agreed to fill out the questionnaires again online. The findings show that at baseline, no differences in any of the psychological assessments existed between males and females. In the sample with a follow-up, when males and females were combined, significant changes were found in some of the measures such as the BMI (decreased after the intervention) and the BUT_PSDI (increased after the intervention). Although the results suggest a mild effect of the bariatric surgery on the psychological profile of patients, the regression analysis yielded some insights about the patients after the surgery, most importantly the independence of pre-intervention BMI values and post-intervention body image complications, emphasizing the role of psychological help to address these issues. More extensive investigations taking advantage of a wide range of psychological and cognitive examinations can potentially provide more insight regarding the treatment outcome and psychological states of the patients undergoing a significant change in their lives: Bariatric Surgery.