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

• Published in: Obesity facts Vol. 17; no. 2; pp. 201 - 210
• Main Authors: Müller, Astrid, Efeler, Salih, Laskowski, Nora M., Pommnitz, Melanie, Mall, Julian W., Meyer, Günther, Wunder, Ruth, Köhler, Hinrich, Hüttl, Thomas P., de Zwaan, Martina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel, Switzerland S. Karger AG 01.04.2024; Karger Publishers
• Subjects: Addictions; Addictive behaviors; Anxiety; Binge eating; Body mass index; Dumping syndrome; Eating behavior; Eating disorders; Fainting; Gastrointestinal surgery; Heart surgery; Hypotheses; Longitudinal studies; Mental depression; Mental health; Multivariate analysis; Obesity; Patients; Quality of life; Research Article; Weight control; Obesity surgery; Dumping syndrome; Food addiction; Eating disorders; Quality of life
• DOI: 10.1159/000536602
• ISSN: 1662-4025

Introduction: 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. Methods: The study included 220 patients (76% women) before (t0) and 6 months after (t1) obesity surgery (sleeve gastrectomy [n = 152], Roux-en-Y gastric bypass [n = 53], omega loop gastric bypass [n = 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. Results: 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. Conclusion: 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.