Eating disturbances before and after vertical banded gastroplasty: a pilot study

We interviewed 24 female patients who had undergone vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG) to examine what effect eating disturbances have on weight loss outcome after VBG.

Subjects were recruited from 120 patients who had undergone VBG in the last 3 1/2 years. Subjects were asked questions relating to past and present weight status, weight loss methods, eating behaviors, and psychiatric status.

Eating disturbances before VBG in the form of binge eating disorder (BED), bulimia nervosa (BN), night eating syndrome, and drinking large quantities of fluids were very common (75%), and they tended to persist after VBG. Although VBG led to varying weight loss, some patients exhibited a weight regain as postoperative time increased. Patients currently diagnosed with an eating disturbance were more likely to exhibit weight regain than people without these disturbances. VBG did not affect psychiatric status.

VBG appears to be successful in producing weight loss in the morbidly obese, but less successful in altering eating behavior or psychiatric status. Future studies should aim to clarify the role of eating behavior in determining the outcome of bariatric surgery and examine whether treatments such as cognitive behavior therapy targeted specifically at the eating disturbance can improve surgical outcome.