Purpose of the review: To update the recent findings on the influence of personality features on postoperative weight loss in patients undergoing bariatric surgery.
Recent findings: Several studies investigated the influence of pre-surgical psychological variables on the outcome of bariatric surgery, but the effective role of personality factors (i.e., both normal personality traits and personality disturbances) in shaping bariatric surgery outcome is still unclear. We analyzed nine recent papers that examined the impact of pre-operative personality traits on postoperative weight loss among individuals undergoing surgery for severe obesity. A personality pattern denoting the ability to self-regulate in spite of the urges or demands of the moment emerged as a robust predictor of good outcome across studies, independently from baseline psychiatric comorbidity and personality disorders.
Keywords: Bariatric surgery; Obesity; Personality; Psychological predictors; Weight loss.