Food addiction and other addictive behaviours in bariatric surgery candidates

The present study investigated the association between food addiction (FA) and other addictive behaviours in 216 bariatric surgery candidates (91.7% class 3 obesity; 80.1% women; age Mdn = 44.00 years, range 18-73).

Assessment included the Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 (YFAS 2.0) and standardized self-report questionnaires to measure symptoms of disorders related to substance use (alcohol and nicotine) and behavioural addictions (gambling, Internet-use, buying, hypersexual disorders, and exercise dependence).

Bivariate correlations indicated a moderate relationship of YFAS 2.0 FA symptoms with buying disorder symptoms and a weak association with Internet-use disorder symptoms. Fifty-nine patients (27.3%) met the YFAS 2.0 threshold for FA, 1.9% for alcohol use disorder, 6.0% for nicotine use disorder, 17.3% for buying disorder, 2.3% for Internet-use disorder, and 1.4% for hypersexual disorder. None of the patients scored above the respective questionnaire thresholds for gambling disorder or exercise dependence. Patients with versus without YFAS 2.0 FA diagnosis did not differ with regard to prevalence estimates of addictive behaviours.

Clinical implications and potential limitations of the findings are discussed. Future studies should address the potential risk of postoperative addiction transfer using long-term follow-ups and controlled study designs.