Approximately 25% of individuals undergoing gastric bypass surgery develop an alcohol use disorder afterward.

“yeah so about a quarter of individuals undergoing gastric bypass for obesity which you might conceptualize as food addiction um in certain vulnerable individuals um will go on to develop an alcohol use disorder after their gastric bipass and that's probably operating on multiple levels one level on which it's operating is that alcohol becomes immediately a much more potent drug for them because through the gastric bypass they essentially have a kind of a dumping syndrome where they get the equivalent of many more drinks because it immediately goes into the duodenum and is absorbed so they get um you know where they can have one drink and immediately feel their effects and and part of potency is not just how much dopamine it's released but how quickly it's released um which is why for example you know injecting is so potentially addictive because it's basically right to the brain um so alcohol becomes a very potent drug for them but also because of the problem of cross addiction where when people give up one addictive substance or behavior they are vulnerable to switch that addictive tendency over to another substance or behavior and so unless we're directly addressing the problem of the behavioral addiction itself at the same time that we're addressing uh the Obesity and doing the the bypass surgery folks are going to be vulnerable to that”