Associations between binge eating, depressive symptoms and anxiety and weight regain after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery

Weight regain (WR) after bariatric surgery (BS) is frequent. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the occurrence of psychiatric disorders would be associated with short- and long-term WR after BS. Ninety-six patients (77.6% female, age 40.2 ± 10.1 years, BMI of 50 ± 8.2 kg/m2) from the Obesity and Bariatric Surgery Outpatient Clinic of the Universidade Federal Sao Paulo completed the Questionnaire on Eating and Weight Patterns-Revised, the Beck Depression Inventory and an anxiety inventory to assess the occurrence of binge eating, depressive symptoms (DS) and anxious symptoms (AS) before and after short-term and long-term BS. Twenty-four months after BS, the prevalence of binge eating, depression and anxiety decreased from 100 to 13%, 100 to 15% and 43 to 4%, respectively. The mean WR of 35.2 ± 17.3% of weight loss occurred in nine patients after 24 months and was associated with binge eating (p = 0.002) but not with DS or AS. At long-term follow-up (12 ± 1.5 years), 67% had a mean WR of 50.3 ± 24.9%. The prevalence of binge eating, DS and AS were 48%, 46% and 63%, respectively, in this group, and significant associations were observed between WR and binge eating (p = 0.001), DS (p = 0.029) and AS (p = 0.001). Furthermore, the number of psychiatric disorders was inversely associated with the percentage of weight loss (p < 0.05) and positively associated with WR (p < 0.05). Weight regain was associated with the occurrence of binge eating in the short and long term after BS, whereas the occurrence of depressive and anxious symptoms was associated with WR only in the long term. Evidence obtained from well-designed cohort or case–control analytic studies.