Now, this is a rather old study. It was published in 2005. There’s a reason I haven’t written anything about it yet: it’s not very informative. Unfortunately, it gets misinterpreted a lot, so I feel it’s time to go through it and set the record straight.
Psych Meds - I've Got 'Em!
First off, this study has nothing to do with the absorption of psychiatric medications after gastric bypass. Let me repeat: the study authors did not examine absorption. At all. So, don’t get your hopes up like I did the first time I read it.
We’ll go through this step-by-step, and then I’ll give you my take on the study, and, believe me, I do have an opinion on this one!
Continue reading ‘Dissolution of Common Psychiatric Medications after RNY’
As promised, I’ve read the study I mentioned yesterday, and I’m ready to report back. I am still very excited that this study was conducted, although it does have its limitations.
Continue reading ‘Sertraline Levels in Gastric Bypass Patients’
Photo Credit: Rebecca Bell Wilson
I look like a normal person. Most days I feel like a normal person. So, it’s an interesting conundrum. Why can’t I eat like a normal person? After all, didn’t I have weight loss surgery to be normal?
It’s a common question on weight loss surgery message boards: “How do people gain the weight back after bariatric surgery?” It’s asked as if weight loss surgery is some magic bullet that solves all the mental and physical aspects that contributed to morbid obesity. There are usually answers from individuals a few months out from surgery, claiming that it’s impossible to ever eat enough to gain back the weight. The surgery won’t let you!
Let me let you in on a little secret: this surgery doesn’t fix us.
Welcome back to The Bypassed Life’s new series, “The Crazy in Us.” Today I want to talk about a serious trend in post-operative life: suicide. I’ve spoken briefly on the topic before, but it’s a topic that deserves more attention.
Basically, some research has found higher than expected rates of suicide among weight loss surgery patients. The reasons for this trend remain unclear.
Bariatric surgeons only operate on the digestive tract; they do not touch the brain. Psychological issues are just as much, if not more, of a problem after surgery. One manifestation is in eating disorders. On the ObesityHelp message boards, I have seen many posts by individuals with disordered eating, and many that likely fit the strict diagnostic criteria for eating disorders. There’s scale obsession, rumination (chewing, then spitting out food without swallowing), licking food, anorexia nervosa, and bulimia nervosa. It’s all there on the boards. It’s sort of a dirty little secret of the bariatric community. (Man, we have a lot of those!)
