Mental health problems are not reduced after obesity surgery in young people

Young people undergoing obesity surgery do not improve their mental health despite significant and permanent weight loss. However, bariatric surgery increases the risk of early alcohol problems. This is according to the largest long-term study of young people who have undergone bariatric surgery, carried out among others at Lund University and Karolinska Institutet.

Researchers studied mental health problems – before and after surgery – among all young Swedish people who underwent bariatric surgery between 2007 and 2017. The study was conducted using register data, which allowed to broaden the scope of the study and facilitate comparisons with other groups in society. .

It was found that young people who had surgery were more likely to have received treatment and medication for mental health problems already five years before the operation.

“Although mental illness generally increases between the ages of 15 and 21, for this group the need for treatment has increased faster than for young people in general,” says Kajsa Järvholm, associate professor of psychology at Lund University.

Unfortunately, this trend continued even after obesity surgery; young people who had surgery continued to need mental health care more than their peers.

“Obesity surgery has very positive effects on weight, blood sugar and blood pressure control, but when it comes to mental health, things neither get better nor worse after surgery. bariatric surgery”, explains Martin Neovius, professor of clinical epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet.

Additional findings from the new study include an increase in diagnoses of addiction, particularly to alcohol, in the surgical group, both compared to the preoperative period and compared to young people in general.

This is the world’s largest long-term study of young people who have undergone obesity surgery.

The article is published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.