Description

Obesity affects 15.9% of the Belgian population and remains a difficult disease to treat with traditional weight loss interventions. Its high prevalence and the negative consequences it entails make it a public health concern. Bariatric surgery is associated with long-term weight loss and an improvement in obesity-related comorbidities. However, despite its success in achieving significant and lasting weight loss, numerous studies raise the emergence of unpleasant psychosocial problems after the operation, including an increase of regular alcohol consumption and prevalence of AUD. Some of these studies are longitudinal and include large samples. For example, in a prospective multicenter study, King et al., (2017) found that more than 20% of patients with a bariatric surgery present symptoms of AUD within five years after surgery. Moreover, some studies suggest that, among patients with postoperative AUD, some had never suffered from alcohol problems before surgery.

Given the severe negative consequences of AUD for the individuals who suffer from it, their family and the society, better understanding the factors involved in postoperative alcohol use problems is necessary. However, little is known about predictors of post-bariatric surgery AUD. Known risk factors are: male gender, smoking, regular alcohol consumption before surgery, younger age, recreational drug use, lower sense of belonging and ADHD symptoms. Information is lacking about the psychological risk factors for postoperative AUD and regarding the evolution of problematic drinking patterns other than AUD after surgery.

Given the previously cited gaps in the scientific literature, the present research's aims are to study the evolution of different drinking patterns after bariatric surgery as well as the psychological factors associated with AUD and increased alcohol consumption postoperatively.