Gastric Bands and Psychology
The use of gastric bands has been in motion for well over 40 years, but only in studies today are psychologists finding reason to believe that the BMI or body mass index is not the only thing that needs to be monitored by those that are looking into this extreme weight loss surgery. A gastric lap band is a silicone inflatable band that wraps around the top most portion of the stomach to regulate the amount of food intake that person has. This allows the body to digest less food at once. For a long time, the only qualification that people had to have was a certain body mass index number; but with recent studies, scientist have found that there might be some other things to look into when determining if and when a person should be able to get a gastric band.
Psychologists have determined that some people might try and get the gastric band simply for weight loss rather than medical necessity. However, this was always a possibility since this obesity surgery has been prevalent. Another possibility is a person with destructive tendencies may get the band so that he or she does not have to regulate what they eat and go on frequent binges for one reason or another. This worries doctors because this type of behavior can cause rips in the gastric band or other complications that can result in life threatening situations. For this reason, many clinics and hospitals around the world have begun monitoring the mental state of being for individuals that are looking to go through this weight loss surgery to make sure that they genuinely want to lose the weight that they say they do. It is for this reason that psychology is becoming a sub-class of this type of weight loss surgery all over the world.
Tags: Gastric Bands, Psychology