Is weight control surgery associated with increased risk of newly onset psychiatric disorders? A population-based, matched cohort study in Taiwan

Abstract

Background: Morbid obesity is associated with various diseases, and the weight control surgery (WCS) is one of the treatments for morbid obesity. However, the association between the WCS and psychiatric disorders has yet to be elucidated. This study aimed to investigate the association between the WCS and the risk of developing psychiatric disorders. Materials and Methods: A total of 53,052 enrolled participants with 13,263 patients who received WCS and 39,789 controls with matched for sex and age, between January 1 and December 31, 2000, were selected from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan. After adjusting for confounding factors, Cox proportional hazards analysis was used to compare the risk of developing psychiatric disorders during 10 years of follow-up. Results: Of the study patients, 1170 (8.82%) developed psychiatric disorders when compared to 3490 (8.77%) in the control group. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis revealed that the study patients were more likely to develop psychiatric disorders (hazard ratio [HR]: 2.952, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 2.756–3.163, P < 0.001). After adjusting for gender, age, monthly income, urbanization level, geographic region, and comorbidities, the adjusted HR was 2.901 (95% CI = 2.701–3.115, P < 0.001). Among these psychiatric disorders, depressive disorders, bipolar disorders, and sleep disorders are with significantly increased risk. Conclusions: Patients who received the WCS have a higher risk of developing psychiatric disorders, and the risk was increased in the durations of <1 year and 1–3 years, especially within the duration of 1 year. Regular psychiatric follow-up might be needed for those patients.