I have medicare and I heard you need a psychological eval before getting approval. I have maniac depression and obsessive complusive disorder. Both are controlled well with medication. Though I was wondering, would this stop you from getting your approval? Do you need no mental disorders to pass the eval? Has anyone else passed with one of these with conditions? Fae

Hi!

I had my first consultation on the 17th and I asked this question. The nurse assured us that the evaluation was just to see our coping behaivors. She also assured me that there was not a pass or fail that the Dr. could give us for the evaluation b/c the surgeon has the last say in who he will perform the band on. This is just in my clinics case and I am also self-pay. I'm not sure if your insurance will have any bearing on it at all. I also suffer from clinical depression. Hope all goes well.

What my psychologist said was he looked for personality disorders that would preclude someone from following lap band post op instructions, especially if they were to the point that they would endanger the health of the patient. He cited an example of a girl who was a drug addict and alcoholic who could not be relied upon to stop drinking or using drugs and might very well kill herself with a band.

I had my test the 15th and go talk to the Dr. today about it. Thanks for the information on this. Makes me feel better. I am on medicine for depression too.