Professor’s Study Considers Psychosocial Issues and Bariatric Surgery
The University recently became part of Associate Professor Dr. Melissa Kalarchian’s long-term investigation of the psychosocial outcomes of bariatric surgery patients. She is the site principal investigator for the study, which is part of the Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery (LABS), a National Institutes of Health-funded consortium conducting clinical, epidemiological and behavioral research on bariatric surgery.
The procedures, which restrict a patient’s stomach size and/or lead to decreased absorption of nutrients, can have significant health benefits, including weight loss, reversal of type 2 diabetes and improvements in sleep apnea. Bariatric surgery also includes risks, even death. American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) numbers for bariatric procedures increased from approximately 16,000 in the early 1990s to 220,000 in 2008.
Kalarchian, who also serves as associate dean for research in the nursing school, has a program of research in bariatric surgery. She became part of the LABS study consortium in 2007 when she was on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and her three-site team obtained funding for the psychosocial study in 2010. Kalarchian joined the Duquesne faculty in 2013, and her team applied to renew the grant.
“Not a lot of systematic research has been done on bariatric surgery,” said Kalarchian, who has a joint faculty position in both the School of Nursing and the McAnulty College’s Department of Psychology. “The LABS study was designed to fill this gap. The study enrolled patients from clinical sites across the country who have undergone different types of bariatric surgery. The LABS study has followed and assessed these patients over time to answer basic questions about risks and benefits of bariatric surgery.”
Kalarchian’s Duquesne site and two others in New York City and Fargo, N.D., received renewal funding in the amount of $1,339,000—to be split among the three sites over four years—to document the psychosocial effects through seven-years post-surgery. This includes administering detailed assessments of mood, anxiety, eating, substance use and cognitive factors to a subset of patients at the three participating sites.
“My personal interest in this work is to determine how to best prepare patients for bariatric surgery and how to help them have the best possible long-term weight loss and psychosocial adjustment,” explained Kalarchian. “Obesity is a chronic health condition that’s managed over time. Any weight loss treatment—surgery or not—needs to include a role for behavior change.”
Overall, Kalarchian said that better understanding the effects of the surgery is crucial in developing more effective interventions for treating obesity. It also helps a person considering bariatric surgery to have more information about what to expect regarding the outcomes. “We hope that our interdisciplinary, collaborative study will give providers and patients a much more complete picture of the long-term psychosocial outcomes of weight loss surgery,” said Kalarchian. “I am excited to bring this project to Duquesne and hope to involve students and colleagues.”