Previous and posterior psychopharmacological treatment in bariatric surgery patients

Abstract

Introduction

Bariatric surgery is an effective treatment for obesity. It has been demonstrated that it improves the prognosis of vascular risk factors. However, the long term effect of surgery on psychiatric pathology, as depression, and the treatment adjustment needed is not clear.

Aim

To describe the previous and posterior psychopharmacological treatment of patients operated of bariatric surgery in Hospital del Mar.

Material and methods

We used a database of 292 bariatric surgery patients who have been operated in Hospital del Mar from January 2010 to November 2015. In this database, sociodemographic information, psychiatric antecedents, and anterior and posterior treatments among other data are included. We have made a descriptive analysis about more used treatments and their evolution.

Results

In the sample, 27.1% of patients started with some psychiatric treatment the months before the bariatric surgery (16.4% had already a previous treatment prescribed). The medications the most frequently started before the surgery were selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI, 11%), second were benzodiazepines and third a combination of the two previous treatments. Among antidepressants, Fluoxetine was the most prescribed (45.5%). Six months after surgery, 72.9% of patients were not taking any treatment.

Conclusion

The large variety of psychiatric drugs used in our sample indicates that clearer guidelines are needed about the most appropriated treatments for those patients. Further studies on the impact of this surgery on pathologies and their psychopharmacological treatments are needed.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.