ABSTRACT
The most common impetus for many patients to pursue bariatric surgery is to achieve improvement in medical complications related to obesity. As has been reviewed, weight loss after bariatric surgery clearly results in substantial benefits in achieving reductions or eliminating various medical complications of obesity such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, osteoarthritis, and type II diabetes. However, to fully appreciate a patient's motivation and decision to undergo bariatric surgery, one must also be cognizant of the nonmedical consequences of obesity on an individual's functioning, lifestyle, and quality of life. Numerous psychosocial factors affect an individual's decision to pursue surgery. These factors are also important in considering a patient's response to surgery and ultimately their prognosis. This chapter will review the research on changes in psychosocial functioning after bariatric surgery as well as psychosocial variables known to have predictive effects on outcome.
