A computer screen shows before and after photos of an abdominoplasty patient after the patient had massive weight loss due to bariatric surgery (Copyright Reuters 2016)
Reuters Health - Although use of drugs to treat diabetes and other diseases related to obesity may decline after weight-loss surgery, use of neurological and psychiatric drugs may rise sharply, suggests a new study.
Based on thousands of patients in Denmark, researchers found that three years after gastric bypass surgery, patients' prescription drug use in general decreased, including blood sugar and cholesterol control drugs. But use of antidepressants and neuropathy drugs more than doubled.
It isn't clear why neuropsychiatric drug use rises after weight-loss surgery, but the reasons should be explored, the study team writes in Annals of Surgery.
"It is well-known that weight loss induced by gastric bypass may improve e.g. type 2 diabetes and other metabolic diseases," lead author Dr. Sigrid Bjerge Gribsholt of Aarhus University Hospital told Reuters Health by email.
"But it is surprising that this improvement in metabolic diseases resulted in so pronounced reduction in medication for these diseases - such as more than 70 percent reduced use of drugs used for treatment of diabetes, 40 percent reduction for antihypertensive drugs, and 50 percent reduction for drugs against hyperlipidemia," Gribsholt said
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