Obesity Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Obesity, including details on health, diet, prevention, exercise.

The impact of a history of sexual abuse on weight loss in gastric bypass patients.

Oppong BA, Nickels MW, Sax HC

Deptartment of Psychiatry, University of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY 14642, USA.

A history of sexual abuse has been associated with failure at weight loss. The authors sought to determine whether a history of sexual abuse influences success after gastric bypass surgery. Presurgical self-report questionnaires collected information, including sexual abuse history and previous psychiatric hospitalization, and 27% reported a history of sexual abuse. A history of sexual abuse correlated with (nonsignificantly) less loss of excess weight at 12 and 24 months after surgery. No significant difference in excess-weight loss was detected among those with history of sexual abuse. Therefore, such abuse histories should not preclude surgery for these patients.

Published 1 March 2006 in Psychosomatics, 47(2): 108-11.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Obesity Research Today. All Rights Reserved.