Background

Personality assessments such as the Millon Behavior Medicine Diagnostic (MBMD) help to determine if a patient has undiagnosed health and/or psychiatric conditions which may affect their ability to make required lifestyle changes after bariatric surgery. Psychological assessments are an essential part of this multidisciplinary evaluation process, but limited studies identify the psychosocial factors that may predict weight loss.

Methods

Retrospective analysis of 98 recipients of bariatric surgery and the association between presurgical MBMD psychosocial indicators and the percent change in total weight loss (Δ%TWL) at 6 and 12 months postoperatively. Spearman’s rank-order association was used to assess the relationship between coping styles, psychiatric indicators, and treatment prognostics to the Δ%TWL (p=0.05 for analyses).

Results

The cohort was predominantly female (83%), white (85%), and not Hispanic or Latino (93%). Most were married (57%; 26% single, 16% divorced/widowed), carried private insurance (56%), received sleeve gastrectomy (61%; gastric bypass:39%) and were discharged the day after surgery (55%). We found no significant association between MBMD coping styles and change in %TWL at 6 and 12 months. Psychiatric Indicators, Anxiety-Tension and Emotional Lability (r=-0.30(p=0.021) and r=-0.31(p=0.018), respectively) were negatively associated with Δ%TWL at 6 months but not at 12. Only the Stress Moderator Spiritual Absence was negatively associated with Δ%TWL at 12 months (r=-0.32(p=0.048)), all others were not significant.

Conclusions

Some MBMD psychiatric indications and stress moderators are associated with changes in weight loss after bariatric surgery. Further research is needed to determine the utility of broadband personality assessments in identifying weight-loss predictors.