Weight Loss and Regain After Bariatric Surgery: Importance of the Psychological Therapy in Postoperative Outcomes

Obesity is a chronic disease constituting a public health issue, and its prevalence is alarmingly on the rise worldwide. This disease represents a chronic and multifactorial condition, one of the factors being related to the psychological aspect of the patients. Bariatric is an effective tool for obesity control, with weight regain observed more frequently between the third and sixth postoperative years. Behavioral and psychological aspects would be one of the main weight loss and weight regaining risk factors in bariatric patients. The objective of the study is to demonstrate the importance of postoperative behavioral follow-up in the weight control of patients who underwent bariatric surgery.

The bariatric surgery division database was reviewed, and telephone surveys were performed. A total of 100 patients were included. Overall, 87% of them have a postoperative time of 5 or more years. Weight, percentage of excess weight loss, and percentage of weight regain were evaluated. The group was divided between patients who had or had no behavioral follow-up at 1, 2, 3, and 5 postoperative years.

It was observed that weight loss was statistically higher, and weight regain was statistically lower in the group of patients with behavioral follow-up. This tendency was observed after 1, 2, 3, and 5 years.

Psychological therapy has been shown to be an enhancer for weight loss as well as a protection against weight regain after bariatric surgery. This manifests the need for a long-term postoperative psychological follow-up.