Question about pre-surg psych eval

Did any of you have to do a psychological evaluation as part of your insurance's pre-op requirements? Why is this?  Are there mental health issues that would make the risk of having a procedure done greater than the risk of continuing to be morbidly obese?

I am totally bug whacked but the approved me anyway. Actually, the evaluation is fairly easy. They want to be sure you understand the implications of surgery, if you have depression or other mental health issues it is being treated, and if you were ever raped or molested that you are or were or will be in counseling for this. They also want to know about your support system at home.

Don't sweat it.

Yep- don't sweat it.  When I had mine, the psyc. made it clear she was just getting to know me and prepare me for surgery.  She wasn't there to deny surgeries.  I have bipolar and told her all about it- including 2 hospitalizations and drug use.  She spoke with my counselor and psychiatrist.  It all went just fine, banded Nov. 16, 2009.

I worried too. Not sure why it is done. Nothing was asked that my surgeon didn't know. 

It is quite common -- I was self-pay and my surgeon had me do one -- he wants to make sure that the patient's expectations out of the surgery are realistic.

They also want to be sure that you understand what will be required of you to be compliant with the life-style changes that need to happen with WLS.

Honestly, Banding requires much more patient compliance than the other 3 types of WLS ---- and they psych eval helps to ensure that you are on-board and ready for all of the changes coming your way.

Some people have to complete written 'tests' before their eval -- mine was just a 1-hour discussion with the psychologist that was no big deal.

What Kath said.  Mine was required by insurance and surgery center.

I believe the main reason for the evaluation is that many obese people have been victims of abuse in one form or another, not all but quite a few. The excess weight can be an outcome of the person subconsiously building a wall (of fat) to protect them. So the psych needs to see if there is anything that needs to be dealt with prior to surgery to make sure the person has a good grasp of what they have to do and if they need some counceling beforehand. My psych eval was a couple of booklets of questions with no particular right or wrong answers that I had to answer(took a couple of hours). Then a week later I had an in person meeting with the psych and he deemed me fit for surgery.