title: Association between depression and eating behaviors among bariatric surgery candidates in a Turkish sample.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to explore further whether depression is associated with problematic eating behaviors in a sample of Turkish bariatric surgery candidates.
  
  
  METHODS
  This descriptive study included 168 consecutively seen bariatric surgery candidates in a university bariatric surgery outpatient. Participants were asked to complete the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and surveys assessing sociodemographic and clinical variables. Correlations and linear regression analyses were performed to evaluate the relationship between clinical and demographic variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants had a mean age 37.7 ± 11.3 years and BMI of 46.4 ± 6.7 kg/m2(SD = 6.7). According to BDI scores, 75.5 % of the patients had mild, moderate, or severe depressive symptomatology. Lower levels of depressive symptoms were associated with higher levels of restrictive eating (r = -0.17; p = 0.04), whereas higher levels of depressive symptoms were associated with more frequent eating in response to both internal (r = 0.3; p = 0.002) and external (r = 0.2; p = 0.04) cues. The BDI scores were significantly associated with increased external eating (ß = 0.03, p < 0.02) and emotional eating (ß = 0.03, p < 0.002) scores. BMI (β = -0.02, p = 0.02 > 0.1) was not associated with DEBQ total scores.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This research suggests that mild, moderate or severe depressive symptoms are observed in most of the bariatric surgical candidate patients. There is a positive correlation between severity of depression and emotional/external eating behaviors, and a negative correlation between severity of depression and restrictive eating behavior. Additional research is needed to determine whether treating depression preoperatively can assist with alleviating problematic eating behaviors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Istanbul Gelisim University, Istanbul, Turkey. guzinsevincer@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Güzin M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Sevinçer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry Istanbul, Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Numan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Konuk
authors.affiliation: Bakırköy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatry, Neurology and Neurosurgery, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Derya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: İpekçioğlu
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Research, Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, Fargo, ND, USA.
authors.forename: Ross D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Crosby
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of North Dakota School of Medicine, Fargo, ND, USA.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Department of Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Bezmialem Vakif University, Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Halil
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Coskun
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, University of North Dakota School of Medicine, Fargo, ND, USA.
authors.forename: James E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Mitchell
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D050110:Bariatric Surgery / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009767:Obesity, Morbid / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology* / Q000601:surgery; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Bariatric surgery; Depression; Eating behavior; Emotional eating; Obesity