Abstract
Objective. The purpose of this study was to examine whether subgroups could be identified among a sample of adolescents presenting for bariatric surgery. Methods. Participants were 125 severely obese adolescents enrolled in a bariatric surgery program referred for a psychiatric evaluation. A latent class analysis was conducted with self-report and clinician-rated measures of depressive symptoms, total problems by the Youth Self-Report Scale, anxiety severity, eating pathology, psychiatric diagnoses, quality of life, and family functioning. Results. A 3-class model yielded the best overall fit to the data. Adolescents in the “eating pathology” class demonstrated high levels of both eating disordered and other psychopathology. The second class, or “low psychopathology” class exhibited the fewest psychosocial problems, whereas adolescents in the third class were intermediate on measures of psychopathology, which is consistent with “non-specific psychopathology.” Conclusions. The latent class analysis identified homogeneous subgroups with different levels of psychopathology among a heterogeneous sample of severely obese adolescents. The identification of clinically relevant subgroups in this study offers an important initial means for examining psychopathology among adolescent bariatric surgery candidates and suggests a number of avenues for future research.
Clinical Trials Registry: Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding (LAGB) as a Treatment for Morbid Obesity in Adolescents, NCT01045499
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Tom Hildebrandt, Psy.D., Kevin Walsh, Bela Gandhi, M.D., Khadijah Booth-Watkins, M.D., and the members of the Center for Adolescent Bariatric Surgery team, including Rushika Conroy, M. D., Ilene Fennoy, M. D., Amy May Jean, M.D., Lisa Kotler, M.D., Shulamit E. Lerner, M.D., Janet Schauben, R.D., Mary Ann Witt, DNSc, Jeffrey Zitsman, M.D., and Ana Diaz Zubieta, Ph.D. This project was supported in part by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) grant DK-074503. Dr. Sysko is supported by K23DK088532 from the NIDDK.
Declaration of interest: Dr. Sysko reports holding stock in Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. In the last year, Dr. Walsh reported receiving research support from AstraZeneca. The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.