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Abstract
The utility of the Millon Behavioral Medicine Diagnostic (MBMD; Millon, Antoni, Millon, Meagher, & Grossman, 2001) was investigated in this study for screening gastric bypass surgical candidates and exploring post-surgical outcomes. One hundred nineteen gastric bypass candidates were screened for surgery at a mid-western rehabilitation hospital and data from these evaluations were entered into a database for quantitative analyses. A cluster analysis, a discriminant function, and several multi-variate analyses of variance were performed to differentiate between those candidates who had been recommended for surgery and those who were not. A cluster analysis divided the MBMD clinical scales into two distinct clusters. Then, the discriminant function was able to sufficiently distinguish profiles of these two candidate groups. Next, several multi-variate analyses of variance were conducted with MBMD profile scores to determine statistically significant differences between the candidate groups. These multi-variate analyses of variance also indicated that six scales predicted group membership; Introversive, Inhibited, Dejected, Oppositional, Depression, and Cognitive Dysfunction.
Based on these quantitative analyses, 24 candidates approved for surgery were recruited to participate in qualitative interviews. Six of these individuals who had gastric bypass surgery approximately two years ago chose to participate and were interviewed with a qualitative questionnaire developed specifically for this study. Individual responses to the questionnaire were investigated further, and participants indicated improvement with psychological functioning. Furthermore, these participants expressed satisfaction in many areas of their lives following surgery and reported improved quality of life. Implications of the results found in this study and suggestions for future research were discussed.
