Food Addiction and Alcohol Use Prior to Bariatric Surgery

In individuals prior to bariatric surgery, the prevalence rates of food addiction (FA), alcohol-related disorder, anxiety and depres-sive disorders were estimated. Besides this, it was investigated whether food addiction (FA) symptoms are associated with alcohol use, weight -related quality of life, eating disorder, anxiety, and depression symptoms in individuals prior to bariatric surgery. It was further explored whether there are differences between individuals with and without FA regarding these variables. Methods: Validated questionnaires capturing FA, alco-hol use, weight-related quality of life, eating disorder, anxiety, and depression symptoms were filled out by 419 subjects with obesity. Differ-ences in psychopathological variables between patients with and without FA were investigated by means of non-parametric methods. Results: The current sample's estimated prevalence rates of risky alcohol use (11 %) and alcohol-related disorder (5 %) were lower than in population -based samples, but the estimated prevalence rates of food addiction (38 %), eating disorders (79 %), depression (30 %), and anxiety disorders (24 %) were higher. There were no differences between individuals with/without FA regarding prevalence rates of past or current risky alcohol use or alcohol-related disorder. FA symptoms were not correlated with alcohol use and weight-related quality of life. On the contrary, positive correlations of FA symptoms with global eating disorder pathology, depression and anxiety symptomatology were found. Conclusion: The results confirm previous findings of a lack of association of FA with alcohol use in patients prior to bariatric surgery. Longitudinal studies with large samples and long-term follow-up should investigate a possible postoperative symptom shift from FA to substance use.