[Prevalence of psychiatric disorders in patients with severe obesity waiting for bariatric surgery]

Abstract

Introduction: Obesity is a chronic condition, in which different systems of the body are affected. There are some previous studies in which the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in extreme obese patients has been reported, but there are some methodological problems. As far as we know this is the first report of the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in obese patients that need to have a surgical treatment for this disorder in Mexico. The main goal of this study was to determine the prevalence and risk factors of psychiatric disorders in extreme obese patients candidates to bariatric surgery.

Material and methods: The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) axis I disorders, were performed in 70 obese patients that will undergo for bariatric surgery. Also the medical files were reviewed in order to obtain the main medical conditions related to obesity.

Results: There were 25 men and 35 women in this study (average age +/- s.d = 39.0 +/- 10.4). The Body Mass Index (BMI) was 53.8 +/- 11.9. Sixty percent of the patients had some psychiatric disorder in the axis I of DSM-IV. The most frequent psychiatric problem that was observed was anxiety disorders. The main medical problems observed were: arterial hypertension (59%), diabetes mellitus type 2 (29%) and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (29%). The BMI and diabetes mellitus were associated with a lower risk for presenting a psychiatric disorder (for a BMI of 65.5 +/- 10.3 kg/m2: OR 0.26, CI 0.05-1.15, p = 0.04; for diabetes mellitus: OR 0.20, CI 0.03-1.05, p = 0.02).

Conclusions: More than half of the patients had at least one psychiatric disorder in axis 1 of DSM-IV, related mostly to anxiety and mood disorders. Our findings point out the importance of psychiatric and psychological intervention in this group of patients, in which a follow up and adherence of medical, nutritional and psychological problems could be the difference, between a good or bad prognosis. Follow-up studies with obese patients after bariatric surgery, will be important to support our findings.