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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition, Psychology and Brain Health
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1429906
This article is part of the Research Topic Journey Through Bariatric Surgery View all 6 articles

Personality dimensions, depression, and eating behavior in individuals seeking bariatric surgery: a cluster analysis

Provisionally accepted
Alessandro Rodolico Alessandro Rodolico 1Valentina Lucia La Rosa Valentina Lucia La Rosa 1Caterina Romaniello Caterina Romaniello 2Carmen Concerto Carmen Concerto 1Valeria Meo Valeria Meo 1Giulia Saitta Giulia Saitta 1Serena Sturiale Serena Sturiale 1Maria S. Signorelli Maria S. Signorelli 1Ray Wang Ray Wang 3Ramon Solhkhah Ramon Solhkhah 4Catherine Phalen Catherine Phalen 5Michael Kelson Michael Kelson 5Eugenio Aguglia Eugenio Aguglia 1Stanley R. Terlecky Stanley R. Terlecky 5Florian P. Thomas Florian P. Thomas 5Fortunato Battaglia Fortunato Battaglia 5*
  • 1 University of Catania, Catania, Sicily, Italy
  • 2 School of Specialization in Psychotherapy, PerFormat, Pisa, Italy
  • 3 Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States
  • 4 Pritzker School of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States
  • 5 Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, Nutley, New Jersey, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Psychiatric comorbidity is frequent in bariatric surgery candidates. This study aimed to classify bariatric surgery patients according to patterns of preoperative measures of the severity of the eating disorder (ED), depression, and personality traits. In the present cross-sectional study, 115 adult candidates for bariatric surgery (75 females, 65.22% of sample; mean age 37) were considered for analysis. Patients' sociodemographic and psychopathological variables were collected. K-Means clustering analysis was adopted to classify bariatric surgery candidates according to their preoperative Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2) scores. In addition, we assessed depression and personality traits using the Beck Depression Inventory-2 (BDI-2) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2). Cluster analysis based on EDI-2 revealed two preoperative patterns: higher severity (n=39), and low severity (n=76). The more severe EDI-2 group had higher scores on the BDI-2 and presented higher scores on several MMPI-2 dimensions, particularly those related to anxiety (Psychastehnia, Anxiety, Fears, Obsessiveness), depression (Depression, including both content and clinical MMPI-2 subscales), externalizing symptoms (Anger, Cynicism, Type A Behavior), and social functioning (Social Introversion, Family Problems, Work Interference). Eating disorders symptoms in candidates for bariatric surgery are closely related to depression and different psychological conditions assessed with MMPI-2. These psychological variables should be evaluated preoperatively and targeted with more specific psychological interventions.

    Keywords: Bariatric Surgery, personality traits, Eating Disorders, Cluster analysis, Depression

    Received: 08 May 2024; Accepted: 26 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Rodolico, La Rosa, Romaniello, Concerto, Meo, Saitta, Sturiale, Signorelli, Wang, Solhkhah, Phalen, Kelson, Aguglia, Terlecky, Thomas and Battaglia. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Fortunato Battaglia, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, Nutley, New Jersey, United States

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