Surgery for weight loss may lead to some mental issues

Adolescents may develop new or worsening mental health problems after weight- loss surgery, particularly those who already had symptoms at the time of the procedure, according to a small U. S. study. Researchers followed the psychological health of 139 severely obese adolescents undergoing weightloss surgery and 83 similar teens treated without surgery, and found that after two years, roughly one in three kids had some mental health problem, such as depression, anxiety or behavioral disorders. About 9 percent of the surgical patients had worsening of their psychological symptoms from the start of the study period compared with about 6 percent of nonsurgical patients. However, for nearly 19 percent of surgery patients and 25 percent of nonsurgical patients, mental health symptoms were reduced after two years. Sanita L. Hunsaker of the Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center in Ohio and colleagues emphasize in their report in the Journal of Adolescent Health that the majority of kids did not begin or end the study with mental health problems. The results suggest that a “notable minority” of adolescents do have mental health issues and, like any condition that doesn’t go into remission after weightloss surgery, such as high blood pressure or blood fats, continued monitoring and treatment is “warranted,” they write. “Bariatric surgery leads to many improvements in health outcomes, but it is not a panacea for teens with severe obesity,” said Aaron Kelly, co- director of the center for pediatric obesity at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, who wasn’t involved in the study. “Based on this data it is important to manage the expectations of these patients. Bariatric surgery may not improve their mental health,” he said in a telephone interview. The study team analyzed data from a long- term study of adolescents who underwent bariatric surgery at five medical centers in the US from 2007 to 20012.