Weight-loss surgery shown to help relieve depression

Patients seeking and undergoing weight-loss surgery were more likely to suffer from depression and binge-eating than the general population - but those with depression often saw their mental health improve after surgery, a new UCLA-led paper shows. The findings, published this month in JAMA, don't establish a causal link between bariatric surgery and improved mental health. But they do reveal a surprising relationship worthy of more study.

"Although our results should not be interpreted as indicating that surgery is a treatment for depression, severely obese patients with depression may gain psychological benefits" along with the physical benefits of surgery, the authors wrote.

Researchers found essentially no significant difference in weight loss between those with and without pre-surgery depression a year after the surgery. But having bariatric surgery seemed to be linked to lower rates of depression after the procedure. "We were pretty surprised to find a somewhat dramatic drop in both the incidence of depression and the severity of the depressive symptoms after the operation," said Aaron Dawes, the lead study author. - Los Angeles Times