ALCOHOL ABUSE INCREASES AFTER WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY

By Alex Crees

A new study has found that adults who undergo a common type of bariatric surgery to lose weight appear to have a significantly higher risk of abusing alcohol two years after the procedure, according to researchers the University of Pittsburgh.

The study investigated alcohol consumption and abuse in nearly 2,000 patients across the United States.  Researchers surveyed bariatric patients on their alcohol consumption 30 days before surgery, then again one and two years after surgery.

Nearly 70 percent of the participants had gastric bypass surgery - which reduces the side of the stomach and shortens the intestine - and were most at risk for alcohol disorders.  Another 25 percent had laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding surgery, which uses a band to make the stomach smaller, and the remaining 5 percent had other, less-common surgeries.

Of those patients who had gastric bypass, 7 percent reported symptoms of alcohol disorders before surgery.  That rate increased to 10.7 percent two years after surgery - a relative increase of more than 50 percent.  Translated to the entire population of people who undergo gastric bypass in the U.S., this could mean an increase of 2000 people suffering from alcohol disorders per year.

Though a prior problem with drinking was one of the best predictors of having a disorder later, more than half of the participants who developed disorders two years after surgery did not have a prior history of alcohol abuse, according to the researchers.

"There have been several studies showing if you give gastric bypass patients a standard amount of alcohol, they reach a higher peak alcohol level, they reach the level more quickly, and they take longer to return to a sober state - they're experiencing alcohol differently after surgery," study researcher Mary King, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh, told FoxNews.com.  "So we weren't entirely surprised to find a significant increase.  It could be a combination of the change in alcohol sensitivities coupled with higher levels of drinking."

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