Postoperative Dumping Syndrome, Health-Related Quality of Life, Anxiety, Depression, and Eating Disturbances: Results of a Longitudinal Obesity Surgery Study

Abstract

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Given the lack of research on the relationship of post-surgery dumping syndrome and eating disturbances, the purpose of the present longitudinal study was to investigate whether dumping after obesity surgery is associated with pre-/postoperative eating disorder symptoms or addiction-like eating beyond the type of surgery, gender, health-realted quality of life (HRQoL) and anxiety/depressive symptoms. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> The study included 220 patients (76% women) before (t0) and 6 months after (t1) obesity surgery (sleeve gastrectomy [<i>n</i> = 152], Roux-en-Y gastric bypass [<i>n</i> = 53], omega loop gastric bypass [<i>n</i> = 15]). The Sigstad Dumping Score was used to assess post-surgery dumping syndrome. Participants further answered the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q), Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 (YFAS 2.0), Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) at t0 and t1. <b><i>Results:</i></b> The point prevalence of symptoms suggestive of post-surgery dumping syndrome was 33%. Regression analyses indicate an association of dumping with surgical procedure (bypass), female gender, reduced HRQoL, more anxiety/depressive symptoms, and potentially with binge eating but not with eating disorder symptoms in general or with addiction-like eating. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> The current study failed to show a close relationship between the presence of self-reported dumping syndrome and eating disorder symptoms or addiction-like eating following obesity surgery. Further studies with longer follow-up periods should make use of clinical interviews to assess psychosocial variables and of objective measures to diagnose dumping in addition to standardized self-ratings.