One of the requirements for me pre-surgery is to have a psychiatric evaluation. I'm getting that tomorrow. Can anyone tell me what they had to go through for their psych eval?

It's a screening process to determine if there's any depression and/or addictive habits that need to be addressed/monitored prior to and after this life altering surgery.

I had to take a 600+ true/false set of questions prior to meeting with the psychologist in person. The psychologist asked about eating habits, home life, childhood often asking me to rate myself on various spectrums of behavior. At the end of our session, he told me what the testing results were.

I had to have two. The first psychologist denied me because of my age. And not having enough "support" so I had to have a second opinion and was approved! Told I was an amazing candidate and all kinda stuff. But yes 600+ questions. Child hood family etc. you'll be fine.

Mine was just a conversation with the Psychologist. She wanted to make sure I knew what I was getting in to and if I had a good support system. Took about 30-40 minutes.

I had to take one about 2 weeks ago. It was the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and was almost 600 questions. I fell asleep half way through the test. Haha

I'm curious what these tests are looking to find or not find in regards to WLS. I called this morning to get my results, waiting to here back from the shrink today. Just a heads up, the test starts the moment you say hi to the doctor. The test can tell a lot about you and even if you lied, are "too good", or got bored and started filling in answer bubbles.

Yep, I had to take the 600 question MMPI too. I've always wanted to take that test, but OMG, I had to take a few rest breaks. I had a very brief interview with the psychologist and he kept telling me I was fine. So I got the impression that this isn't something that's taken very seriously, it's just a formality. I asked for a copy of my results to be sent to me as well as the surgical center.

I had to have two. The first psychologist denied me because of my age. And not having enough "support" so I had to have a second opinion and was approved! Told I was an amazing candidate and all kinda stuff. But yes 600+ questions. Child hood family etc. you'll be fine.

You can ask for a second opinion?

I actually had to watch 5 videos and take a test about pre op WLS and fill out paper work and answer a 300 questionnaire. Took a total of 4 hours before the actually eval took place.

During the eval I was asked the standard questions about family life, childhood, discussed my relationship with good etc.

As one poster said before I think they are looking for underlying issues that may resurface after the surgery just to be aware of them and to know how to help you with those issues hopefully before and after the surgery.

I had an appointment with one (of three) psychs recommended by my surgeon. She said the process would be 3+ hours long with the 600 question questionnaire. After reading on here about folks having much shorter appts, I called another psych on my doctor's list: 100 or so questions emailed to me in advance, then a 45 minute chat in office. Discussed childhood, my weight gain, WL efforts, at-home support, etc. A few answers rabbit-trailed off to a few other questions, but nothing intense or super deep.

Edited October 20, 201312 yr by famille_huggins