Alessio Maria Monteleone1, Giammarco Cascino2, Marco Solmi3, Raffaele Pirozzi4, Salvatore Tolone5, Gianmattia Terracciano4, Simona Parisi4, Monica Cimino6, Palmiero Monteleone7, Mario Maj6, Ludovico Docimo8. 1. Department of Psychiatry, University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Naples, Italy. Electronic address: alessio.monteleone@fastwebnet.it. 2. Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry 'Scuola Medica Salernitana', Section of Neurosciences, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy. 3. Department of Neurosciences, University of Padua, Padua, Italy. 4. Advanced Medical and Surgical Sciences Department, University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Naples, Italy. 5. Advanced Medical and Surgical Sciences Department, University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Naples, Italy. Electronic address: salvatore.tolone@unicampania.it. 6. Department of Psychiatry, University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Naples, Italy. 7. Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry 'Scuola Medica Salernitana', Section of Neurosciences, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy. Electronic address: pmonteleone@unisa.it. 8. Advanced Medical and Surgical Sciences Department, University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli", Naples, Italy. Electronic address: ludovico.docimo@unicampania.it.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The interplay among personality traits, anxiety and eating symptoms in candidates for bariatric surgery has never been investigated through the network analysis approach. Thus, we aimed to use this method to identify the key psychological traits that characterize these individuals and to assess their role as predictors of surgical outcomes. METHODS: One-hundred-eighty-five candidates for bariatric surgery filled in the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the Revised Restraint Scale, the Power of Food Scale and the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised (TCI-R) questionnaires. All these variables were included in a network analysis. Then, the most central network nodes were entered as independent variables in a regression model that included 9-month follow-up weight outcomes as the dependent variable. RESULTS: The network has showed a good stability. TCI-self directedness and harm avoidance scores and STAI state and trait anxiety scores were the nodes with the highest centrality in the network. Weight outcomes were assessed in 64 patients at follow-up. Among central nodes, low TCI-self directedness was found to be the only significant independent predictor of worse weight outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show for the first time the interplay between personality traits and symptoms in candidates for bariatric surgery combining the network approach with a follow-up evaluation. Low self-directedness has been proved to be the node with highest centrality and the only predictor of short-term weight outcome. These data suggest the importance to take into consideration personality and psychological variables either in the pre-surgery assessment or as possible targets for pre or post-surgery psychotherapeutic interventions. ORCID: 0000-0002-6786-4458.
OBJECTIVE: The interplay among personality traits, anxiety and eating symptoms in candidates for bariatric surgery has never been investigated through the network analysis approach. Thus, we aimed to use this method to identify the key psychological traits that characterize these individuals and to assess their role as predictors of surgical outcomes. METHODS: One-hundred-eighty-five candidates for bariatric surgery filled in the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the Revised Restraint Scale, the Power of Food Scale and the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised (TCI-R) questionnaires. All these variables were included in a network analysis. Then, the most central network nodes were entered as independent variables in a regression model that included 9-month follow-up weight outcomes as the dependent variable. RESULTS: The network has showed a good stability. TCI-self directedness and harm avoidance scores and STAI state and trait anxiety scores were the nodes with the highest centrality in the network. Weight outcomes were assessed in 64 patients at follow-up. Among central nodes, low TCI-self directedness was found to be the only significant independent predictor of worse weight outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings show for the first time the interplay between personality traits and symptoms in candidates for bariatric surgery combining the network approach with a follow-up evaluation. Low self-directedness has been proved to be the node with highest centrality and the only predictor of short-term weight outcome. These data suggest the importance to take into consideration personality and psychological variables either in the pre-surgery assessment or as possible targets for pre or post-surgery psychotherapeutic interventions. ORCID: 0000-0002-6786-4458.