Study Setting
ideation, comorbidity, psychiatric illness, psychosis
Patients were recruited from the Toronto Western Hospital Bariatric Centre of Excellence (TWH-BCOE), Humber River Hospital Bariatric Surgery Program (HRH-BSP), and Ottawa Hospital Bariatric Centre of Excellence (TOH-BCOE) between February 2018 and December 2021. To be accepted into the TWH-BCOE, HRH-BSP, or TOH-BCOE, patients were required to be 18 years or older with a preoperative body mass index (BMI; calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared) of 40 or greater or a BMI of 35 or greater with at least 1 obesity-related comorbidity. All patients underwent a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass or a sleeve gastrectomy. Patients were eligible to participate in the study if they were 1 year after bariatric surgery, fluent in English, and had access to a telephone and a computer with internet connection to complete questionnaires. Study exclusion criteria included active suicidal ideation or poorly controlled severe psychiatric illness (eg, current psychosis) that would preclude a patient’s ability to engage in tele-CBT sessions.