Obesity is a chronic disease needs to be investigated not from the biological point of view alone, as it also has medical and psychological outcomes. While evaluating obese patients, we come across many psychopathological conditions. The present study aimed to investigate abnormal eating attitudes and the level of impulsiveness in morbid obese patients undergoing bariatric surgery. The present study comprised a total of 60 subjects, of whom 30 were morbid obese patients presented to the Inonu University School of Medicine, Department of General Surgery for bariatric surgery and remaining 30 were healthy controls. The participants abnormal eating attitudes were measured by Eating Attitudes Test, and the level of impulsiveness was measured by Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11). Comparing morbid obese patients with the control group, no significant difference was determined in terms of age (p=0.712). The score of abnormal eating attitudes test was significantly higher in the morbid obese patient group as compared to the control group (p=0.00). However, there was no difference between the groups in terms of the scores of Barratt impulsiveness scale (p=0.242). Individuals eating habit is one of the factors considered to be important for the start and maintenance of obesity. Moreover, high level of impulsiveness as well might be an important factor for the development of morbid obesity. However, in the present study, no statistically significant difference was determined between the groups despite higher scores of the patient group vs. the control group indicating the level of overall impulsiveness. Psychotherapeutic interventions focusing on impulsive characteristics and abnormal eating attitudes of the morbid obese patients might be helpful in medical and surgical treatments of these patients.
Key words: Morbid obesity, impulsiveness, eating attitudes
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