Binge Status and Quality of Life After Gastric Bypass Surgery: a One-year Study

Objective: This study evaluated gastric bypass surgery outcomes according to presurgical binge eating severity.

Research Methods And Procedures: Adult patients completed assessment questionnaires including the Short Form-36, Gormally Binge Eating Scale (BES), and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) before and 12 months after surgery.

Results: One hundred nine patients (18 men, 91 women) were recruited. Based on their baseline BES scores, patients were non- [n = 52 (48%)], moderate [n = 31 (28%)], or severe [n = 26 (24%)] binge eaters. Although the percentage of excess weight loss was greatest after 12 months in the severe binge eaters, the difference among groups was not significant. Severe binge eaters had higher baseline BDI scores than either non- or moderate binge eaters (p = 0.001). After surgery, BDI scores declined significantly in all groups from the baseline scores but remained higher postoperatively in the severe binge eaters (p = 0.018). BES scores declined significantly (p = 0.000) after surgery within all groups. There was no difference in the Short Form-36 physical component summary scores at baseline among groups. Mental component summary scores were significantly lower in the severe binge eaters (p = 0.001). After surgery, there was no difference among groups in either physical or mental component summary scores.

Discussion: In conclusion, data from the present study suggest that patients have similar outcomes in terms of improved depression scores, binge eating behavior, and health-related quality of life regardless of their binge eating severity before surgery. Patients with the most severe binge eating behavior before surgery showed the most improvement when assessed 12 months after surgery.