A recent article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported that between 2007-2008 the prevalence of age-adjusted obesity among adults was 33.8% (Flegal, Carroll, Ogden, & Curtin, 2010). Obesity was defined as a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30.0 or higher. Obesity is associated with an increased risk for heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Over the past twenty years, reports such as the one cited above have prompted discussions about the societal and health care costs of obesity. However, public health campaigns intended to reduce the number of obese people and educate Americans about healthy food and lifestyle choices have largely failed. Consequently, public health advocates as well as the medical community continue to search for viable "solutions" to the problem of obesity.
Gastric bypass surgery (GBP) represents one of these "medical solutions" that can be used to help obese individuals lose weight and thus reduce overall health risks associated with obesity. However, this drastic surgical intervention has so far only been recommended for morbidly obese patients, i.e. individuals with a BMI over 40.0 (Belachew, Belva, & Desaive, 2002). Moreover, in recent years the medical community has recognized the need for pre-surgery psychological screening, as potential GBP candidates must be able and willing to commit to lifestyle changes after the surgery to avoid serious complications and succeed in reducing their weight. On the following pages, this paper will discuss in depth the need for pre-surgery psychological screening of GBP candidates; identify potential screening tools and problem areas prevalent in morbidly obese patients that have to be addressed by psychologists prior to surgery.
Importance of psychological screening
Although the etiology of morbid obesity is subject to debate, there appears to be agreement within the community of medical and mental health professionals that morb...