Back to Annual Meeting Posters

Introduction
Bariatric surgery is an effective and enduring therapy for weight loss and comorbidity remission. This study assesses patients' depression, anxiety, and stress before and after bariatric surgery utilizing the DASS questionnaire.
Methods: Demographic, preoperative, and three-month postop data were prospectively collected for 135 consecutive surgeries at a single academic institution. Before surgery and at a 3 months post op, the DASS questionnaire was administered. Weight, anthropometric features, and demographic data were collected. DASS scores were compared to demographic, preop, and postop data by student T-test and chi-squared analysis for continuous and dichotomous variables respectively using GraphPad Prisim 6.
Results: All 135 patients completed preoperative DASS questionnaires. Of these, 93 patients were at or beyond the 3-month postoperative time point. 55% of these patients completed their 3-month questionnaires. Patient demographics included an average BMI 45, age 47, 51% white, and 4 total preoperative comorbidities. Depression, anxiety, stress, and total DASS scores reduced significantly at 3 months when all patients were analyzed. When divided by surgery type, those undergoing gastric bypass showed significant reduction in all measures. Patients undergoing sleeve gastrectomy only improved their stress scores (p = 0.031) while patients undergoing gastric banding improved their stress (p = 0.016) and total DASS (p = 0.05) scores. Depression was self-reported in 49% of patients. Those that reported depression pre-operatively had significantly higher depression specific scores than those without self-reported depression (p = 0.045). Anxiety and stress specific scores, as well as total DASS scores, were not significantly different between those with and without self-reported depression (all p values >0.252). Three months after surgery, those with pre-operative self-reported depression had greater percent reduction in all scores, although none of these differences were significant.
BMI, weight, and excess weight loss were found to have no correlation to reduction of DASS scores. Waist circumference reduction, however, was correlated with reduction in depression specific (p = 0.096) and anxiety specific (p = 0.011) scores.
Conclusion: Weight loss surgery provides promising reductions in DASS scores, even at the 3-month time point. Those with depression scored higher at baseline, but fortunately had greater improvement of those scores at 3-months. Waist circumference was also found to be associated with change in DASS scores.