Mental illness does not affect bariatric surgery weight loss results
"Many clinicians are hesitant to consider bariatric surgery in the mentally ill population due to the assumption that they will not fare well. This research counters those assumptions, showing no difference, on average, in weight loss in the mentally ill versus non-mentally ill population," said TOS spokesperson Scott Kahan, MD, MPH, FTOS, Director of National Center for Weight and Wellness. "No prior research has evaluated this research question in a large and detailed study group. While all potential surgical patients should receive a thorough evaluation prior to considering surgery, this research suggests that there appears to be no outright reason to deny consideration of bariatric surgery in patients with mental illness who otherwise are good surgical candidates." Researchers reviewed electronic health record (EHR) data from over 8,000 adults with and without mental illness, from several health care systems across the United States in 2012-2013, to study we...