Had my psych test today. It was not at all what I expected from what I have read of others experiences here. I had no pen & paper diagnostic testing at all. Just spent about a half hour w/ a psychiatric nurse practioner. She asked me to explain my understanding of the surgical procedure and the frequency and sort of follow up required. She asked me why I wanted to have this surgery, if I had ever been able to lose weight on my own. Asked about family psychiatric history, if I ever thought of suicide,if I ever thought of killing anyone, if I ever hallucinated, asked whether I had a history of eating disorders, and if I had a history of drug/alcohol abuse. Then she did some simple, verbal evaluations of my cognitive functioning. This consisted of asking me my name, where I was, and what sort of surgery I was pursuing. Then she said three words and asked me to repeat them back to her. Told me she would ask me again later, and in the meantime would distract me with other questions. She asked me to spell a word forward and backward and had me do some simple arithmatic in my head and then asked me if I remembered and could repeat back the 3 words she had given me earlier.

In the end, she said I did fine and that she thought I was a good candidate, psychologically speaking, for the surgery.

YAY! That was my last pre-op test! Now I just have a follow up appt. with the pulmonoligist to get the results of my sleep study and I have to await the nutritionist's stamp of approval. :smile:

Edited May 26, 200917 yr by TSB

Interesting reading, thanks for posting. Mine was done at the Ohio State University and involved first doing a 200 question multiple choice test before the discussion with the doctor. At the time I was taking medicine for depression and was worried they wouldn't approve me for surgery.

Mine was even easier. I was really scared going into it and it didn't even last 10 minutes!! The first three minutes he was on the phone with someone else and then he just asked about where I go to school, how is my home life, any history of sexual/alcohol/substance abuse in my immediate family, and my opinion on the surgery. It was so easy lol.

urghhhhh

you are so lucky!!!

after my first visit with my shrink, she made an appt for me to take a two hour test about hearing voices!!!

i went in today for the results and she said everything looked great and she would approve me....but, she would be "surprised" if my primary doc didnt put me on a supervised diet!

i went to the nutritionist and was approved by them as well. my appt's next tuesday so well see.

hopefully everything will work out just like you.

congrats!!!

So you are not nuts...OR retarded! LOL (That was in reference to the having to spell forwards and backwards, which I am not sure I could do w/o a pen and paper.) What a great test!!

I have this fear that I am going to sit down with some old lady and be grilled over my relationship with food and what it all means to my pshyche. :crying:

So you are not nuts...OR retarded! LOL (That was in reference to the having to spell forwards and backwards, which I am not sure I could do w/o a pen and paper.) What a great test!!

I have this fear that I am going to sit down with some old lady and be grilled over my relationship with food and what it all means to my pshyche. :crying:

LOL, no not nuts or retarded. I did ask if I could get some kind of certificate stating I was perfectly sane that I could post at both work and home. She laughed and said all she could attest to was that I was not psychotic:huh2: and that I understood how WLS will impact my life.

I was a little nervous about the psych eval, too. I had read about the written tests that a lot of WLS candidates have to take and I was worried about checking off the wrong box or something. Of all the pre-op testing I have been through over the last few months, this was by far the easiest.