Swedish research has shown that obese people who undergo weight loss surgery are more likely to attempt suicide than the general population. This research is certainly very shocking. The research team has written in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology that the findings so far show that bariatric patients are first counseled to find out whether their mental health is good or not before surgery.  

This is the reason why the risk of suicide increases after bariatric surgery

The researchers examined data from two patient registries of obese patients who had either bariatric surgery or another form of treatment to lose weight, with a particular focus on their lifestyles. Patients who had surgery in one registry were nearly three times more likely to commit suicide or self-harm than those who had used other methods of weight loss, while patients who had surgery in the other registry had a 78 percent higher risk.

Both non-surgical patients commit suicide

The absolute risk of suicide was less than 1 percent for both surgical and non-surgical patients in both registries, and the risk of non-fatal self-harm was also low, ranging from less than 1 percent to about 4 percent. "We believe that the benefits of bariatric surgery, including reduced mortality, outweigh our findings of an increased risk of suicide and self-harm," lead study author Martin Neovius, a researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, said via email.

According to the World Health Organization, 1.9 billion people on the global level are overweight or obese. Obesity increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, joint pain and some cancers. Previous research has found that obese people often struggle to lose excess pounds or keep them off even after losing weight. Lifestyle changes such as following a healthy diet and exercising regularly can often help in the short term but fail to produce lasting results, especially for those who have to lose more than 100 pounds before reaching a healthy weight.