Body Dysmorphic Disorder
A mental illness involving obsessive focus on a perceived flaw in appearance.
The flaw may be minor or imagined. But the person may spend hours a day trying to fix it. The person may try many cosmetic procedures or exercise to excess.
People with this disorder may frequently examine their appearance in a mirror, constantly compare their appearance with that of others, and avoid social situations or photos.
Treatment may include counseling and antidepressant medication.
Cluster Number:
Wiki Number: W024
Diagnosis: Body Dysmorphic Disorder
US Patients: US2%
World Patients:
Sex Ratio:
Age Onset: Age 12
Brain Area:
Symptoms: Ruminates about a real or exaggerated flaw, tries to hide or uses plastic surgery
Progression: 1/3 delusional, may “pick at it” and create scars, emotional hyper-arousal, social withdrawal
Causes: Those with poor self-image get proccupied and take more “selfies” which makes it worse.
Medications: anti-depressants; I (Jim Lohr) suspect women worry about features; men about sizes of body parts.
Therapies: CBT-clarifying the false observations
4 CURRENT ARTICLES
FROM PUBMED
The world-wide medical research
reports chosen for each diagnosis
Clicking each title opens the
PubMed article’s summary-abstract.
- Motivations and Psychological Characteristics of Men Seeking Penile Girth Augmentationby Gemma Sharp on May 5, 2022
CONCLUSIONS: Men seek penile girth augmentation for a variety of reasons and perceive all their penile dimensions to be smaller than ideal sizes. They differ from non-clinical samples in some psychological characteristics and a small but sizeable portion experience BDD.
- Body dysmorphic disorder, skin diseases and psychological morbidity: common and complexby Parker Magin on May 4, 2022
No abstract
- An Evaluation of the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Symptom Scale as a Measure of Treatment Response and Remission in Psychotherapy and Medication Trialsby Berta J Summers on April 27, 2022
The Body Dysmorphic Disorder Symptom Scale (BDD-SS) is a self-report tool that captures an array of representative behavioral and cognitive symptoms commonly displayed by individuals with BDD. The BDD-SS is regularly used among experts in the field, though its utility as a measure of treatment response has not yet been formally evaluated. Results from two clinical trials of BDD treatment were pooled from an archived database to create a sample of 220 BDD participants who received either...
- Peripheral oxytocin concentrations in psychiatric disorders - A systematic review and methanalysis: Further evidenceby Adriana Colar Ferreira on April 24, 2022
Increased interest in understanding how changes in the oxytocinergic system are associated with the etiology and progression of psychiatric disorders has currently boosted the publication of studies. We present a systematic literature review followed by meta-analyses assessing whether peripheral oxytocin (OXT) levels among psychiatric patients differ from healthy controls, considering the moderating role of methodological aspects and samples' characteristics. The following electronic databases...