High-Risk Alcohol Use and Disordered Eating Behavior Before and 1 Year After Sleeve Gastrectomy

Area of Science:

• Bariatric Surgery
• Addiction Medicine
• Gastroenterology

Background:

• Growing evidence suggests increased alcohol misuse following certain bariatric procedures.
• The specific risk of developing high-risk alcohol use after sleeve gastrectomy remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the risk of high-risk alcohol use one year after sleeve gastrectomy.
• To explore potential links between disordered eating and high-risk drinking post-surgery.

Main Methods:

• 97 patients were interviewed before and one year after sleeve gastrectomy.
• High-risk alcohol use was assessed using a modified Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C).
• Eating behaviors were evaluated using the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire Revised-18 (TFEQ-R18).

Main Results:

• High-risk drinking prevalence rose from 13.4% pre-surgery to 22.7% one year post-surgery.
• 16.5% of patients reported new high-risk drinking, an incidence of 19.0%.
• New high-risk drinkers showed trends towards lower cognitive restraint and higher disordered eating scores at baseline.

Conclusions:

• One in five non-high-risk drinkers developed new high-risk alcohol intake one year after sleeve gastrectomy.
• Findings suggest a potential "addiction transfer" from disordered eating to alcohol misuse post-sleeve gastrectomy.
• Patients with new high-risk drinking exhibited greater baseline disordered eating and improved eating behaviors post-surgery.