Postoperative food avoidance disorder

The search for bariatric surgery in morbidly obese patients and even for some people who are not within this classification, but who end up undergoing this process as a way to? resolve? your weight problem so far unsuccessfully.

Bariatric and metabolic surgery are scientifically supported techniques for the treatment of obesity, and diseases associated with or aggravated by excess body fat.

Brazil is the second country in the world in the number of bariatric surgeries performed, and approximately 10 to 15% of these patients, after a few years regain all weight lost in surgery, returning to the initial weight.

But even with this advance in the obesity treatment The emergence of other pathologies associated with this intervention has also grown. postsurgical eating avoidance disorder or postoperative food avoidance disorder, in Portuguese.

Some patients undergoing surgery experience rapid weight loss due to voluntary dietary restriction due to a growing fear of regaining weight. This process is associated with a lot of anxiety and dissatisfaction with body image.

Many people go to surgery without being emotionally prepared for the changes that will take place postoperatively, even though they have been licensed for this procedure. This is because patients are not required to undergo psychological and nutritional treatment at least six months before, so that they can make significant and / or permanent changes in their relationship with food.

Often patients report that they know everything about the process, that they are aware that they will not be able to overeat, or that they will know the changes in body image that will occur and that they are prepared to deal with these situations without problems.

But what we see in the post-surgery is that many people are afraid of losing their food control, suffer a lot from not being able to eat as before, eat hidden even if they feel sick or in pain, are frightened by the new body image, the excess skin resulting from weight loss.

Therefore, it is important to be alert, as bariatric surgery is an initial process of weight loss, but that does not ensure the maintenance of the lean body, nor the elimination of the desire to eat.

When undergoing a process of dietary change, developing assertive behaviors such as eating at the right times, healthy foods, regular exercise, emotional balance, better acceptance of body image, the possibility of postoperative results being satisfactory is greater and better in terms of the patient's health.

DeVos Medical Ethics Colloquy: Ethics of Medical Choice -- Rationing (April 2024)