Eating disorders after bariatric surgery: a case series.

OBJECTIVE

A significant number of post-bariatric surgery (BS) patients present with eating disorders (EDs) symptoms that require specialized treatment. These cases are thought to be underreported due to their frequent sub-syndromal presentation. This article describes ED syndromes that develop subsequent to BS.

METHOD: The clinical charts of 12 individuals who were hospitalized on a specialized inpatient EDs unit were reviewed.

RESULTS

Based on the new DSM-5 proposed criteria, six patients would meet criteria for an anorexia nervosa (AN) diagnosis: three with binge eating/purge AN subtype and three with restrictive AN subtype. An additional four met criteria for atypical AN, since they were at a normal weight, and two patients met criteria for bulimia nervosa.

DISCUSSION: Several similarities to the classical EDs were found. The findings that most distinguished these patients from those with classical EDs were their ages, and the age of onset of the ED for some patients.