The Impact of Psychological Support on Weight Loss Post Weight Loss Surgery: a Randomised Control Trial

BACKGROUND: The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the impact of a health psychology-led bariatric rehabilitation service (BRS) on patient weight loss following bariatric surgery at 1 year. METHODS: A single-site open-randomised parallel group control trial based at St. Richard's Hospital in Chichester in the UK. Patients (n = 162) were recruited immediately prior to Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and randomly allocated to receive either treatment as usual (n = 80) or the BRS (n = 82). The BRS involved three 50-min one-to-one sessions with a health psychologist and provided information, support and mentoring pre and post surgery addressing psychological issues such as dietary control, self esteem, coping and emotional eating. Weight loss was assessed at 1 year. The key outcome variable was BMI and change in BMI. RESULTS: Follow-up weight was available for 145 patients. Intention-to-treat analysis (n = 162) using last measured weights showed that mean change in BMI by 1 year post surgery was -16.49. There was no significant difference between the two groups (control group = -16.37, 95 % CI = 15.15-17.57; intervention = -16.6, 95 % CI = 15.42-17.81; η p (2) = 0.001). Similarly, explanatory analysis (n = 145) showed a mean change in BMI of -17.17. The difference between the two groups was not significant (control group = -16.9, 95 % CI = 15.78-18.18; intervention = -17.35, 95 % CI = 18.5-16.16; η p (2) = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Psychological support pre and post bariatric surgery had no impact on weight loss as measured by BMI and change in BMI by 1 year. It is argued that psychological support should be targeted to patients who start to demonstrate weight regain at a later stage. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01264120