Patients with Schizophrenia Do Not Demonstrate Worse Outcome After Sleeve Gastrectomy: a Short-Term Cohort Study

The aim of this study was to compare surgical and psychiatric outcome and weight loss in schizophrenia patients with mentally healthy patients after sleeve gastrectomy.

A cohort study design was selected, comprising patients with schizophrenia with mentally healthy patients who underwent sleeve gastrectomy and were adherent to a follow-up at least 12 months after surgery.

Seven schizophrenia (5 male, 2 female) and 59 (12 male, 47 female) mentally healthy patients were included in this study. A laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy was performed safely in all 66 patients. The calculated excess weight loss (%EWL) showed no significant differences in both groups and reached 51.68 ± 15.84% for schizophrenia group and 60.68 ± 19.95% for mentally healthy group at 24-month follow-up (p = 0.33). The decrease in the HbA1c levels within 2 years after sleeve gastrectomy was similar in both groups (p = 0.79, 0.88, 0.82, 0.73 for surgery time, time of 6-, 12-, and 24-month follow-up respectively). The psychiatric status of the patients of the schizophrenia group was stable in all cases and no exacerbation of psychiatric symptoms was observed during time of follow-up. Furthermore, an overall significant improvement of the self-estimated mood and satisfaction was observed in both groups (Manova: f = 1.26, p < 0.0001).

The results 2 years after sleeve gastrectomy in stable patients with schizophrenia and after an adequate psychological evaluation were encouraging and comparable to the outcome in mentally healthy patients.