Retrospective exaggeration of symptoms: vomiting after gastric surgery for obesity

The possibility that patients may retrospectively exaggerate the severity of complaints that they have experienced has not been systematically investigated. The validity of retrospective reports was called into question by a study of vomiting following gastric bypass surgery for obesity. Such vomiting occurred relatively infrequently--no more than 3.4 times per week, even during the first postoperative month. At a 6-month follow-up, however, some patients reported that they had experienced very high rates of vomiting postoperatively, in direct contradiction to their earlier reports. Such retrospective exaggeration has apparently contributed to the widespread belief that vomiting following gastric bypass surgery is a serious problem. We believe that this report is the first to describe retrospective exaggeration of symptoms. Further research is needed to assess the extent of this problem.