By: Kaumudi Gurjar

Kaehalee Ghorpade's paper, to be presented at a global conference in August, found psychological counselling is often ignored amongst Indian bariatric surgery patients

In what eminent Indian bariatric surgeons say is the first paper on Indian Bariatric Psychology to be presented globally, a psychology student from the city-based Fergusson College will present her research at the 19th World Congress of the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity Metabolic Disorders (IFSO 2014) in Canada in August, making her the first Indian psychologist to do so.

Kaehalee Ghorpade (22), who recently finished her post-graduation from FC, did so with the completion of a paper on the 'Psycho-social aspects of Bariatric Surgery in Indians'. She said, "The inspiration for this stemmed from observing a close relative undergoing this surgery.

Seeing how psychological counselling helped her progress from pre- to post-surgery, I felt the need to understand its psycho-social aspects, with reference to eating habits, social reactions to excessive obesity, and adherence to diet and exercise for better results."

Dr Shobhana Abhyankar, head of the Psychology department at FC and Kaehalee's guide, said, "The psychological aspect is often ignored in case of bariatric surgeries. Patients undergoing surgery often suffer from low self esteem and confidence and post-surgery, they get irritated when asked to resume altered diets slowly.

Counselling helps adhere to dietary alterations. Kaehalee considered patients from Poona Hospital and KEM Hospital, and followed up with them thrice." Ghorpade considered 34 patients under citybased bariatric surgeon Dr Jayashree Todkar, who said, "The need for counselling is often neglected in India. We have designated counsellors and nutritionsts to counsel our patients.

One needs to understand the difference between true and false hunger or 'hedonic' hunger, derived from taste favouritism and food-related beliefs. We Indians also have the tendency to overindulge in carbohydrates — psychological counselling helps overcome this.

Compared to people from the West, we have thinner muscles, known as sarcocenia, so we have smaller energy machines. Emphasis on developing muscles through regular exercise is as important as diet alteration post-surgery for a successful outcome — the same can be achieved to a larger extent through psychological counselling."

Eminent Mumbai-based bariatric surgeon Dr Sanjay Borude, who will also be attending the conference, lauded the opportunity to present such a paper, but differed on the need for psychological counselling in such cases. He said, "Patients who fail to control weight through diet and exercise come to bariatric consultants, who perform multidimensional roles of endocrinologists, nutritionists and psychologists. I believe only two per cent of patients require outside counselling."

A patient, who spoke to Mirror anonymously, said, "I underwent surgery in October. Having failed to control my weight through diet and exercise, there was a lot of negativity in addition to high blood pressure, high sugar levels and more — counselling is needed to make patients understand the situation. Post surgery, you are expected to stick to a strict diet, and there are serious implications if patients fail."

►► The inspiration for my research stemmed from observing a close relative undergoing this surgery

- Kaehalee Ghorpade