Definition:
Dysmorphophobia is a psychiatric condition that is also known as body dysmorphic disorder or BDD. It has been defined over a century ago and is characterized by an intense fixation or focus on an invisible flaw in one's physical appearance.
Diagnosis:
Diagnosis of dysmorphophobia is normally difficult because patients would rather keep the symptoms to themselves. Diagnosis is solely based on the patient's symptoms. Medical, social and pyschological history of the patient are evaluated.
Treatment:
Most often, patients with dysmorphophobia do not welcome psychiatric referral because they refuse to acknowledge any underlying psychiatric condition. Regardless how frequent visits to cosmetic surgeons or dermatologists may be, these rarely improve dysmorphophobic symptoms. The use of serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) has so far been the most efficient treatment method for patients of dysmorphophobia. The most commonly used types of SRI include: fluoxetine, clomipramine, and fluvoxamine.
Symptoms and Signs:
Patients with dysmorphophobia normally possess a history of frequent visits to cosmetic surgeons or dermatologists without finding any successful results afterwards. These frequent visits may explain the patients' attemtps to reassure themselves of their physical appearance. However, they do not usually realize that their physical flaw is very minor or totally nonexistent. Patients suffering from this disorder will continually agonize over imaginary physical defects.
Causes:
Heredity is believed to be a contributing factor of the disorder. The occurence of dysmorphophobia has been found to be 4 times more likely in the first-degree relatives of patients suffering from the condition than in the relatives of the probands not affected by dysmorphophobia. This psychiatric disorder is said to be associated with the obsessive-compulsive condition because patients of dysmorphophobia are typically those who suffer from obsessive-compulsive behaviors as well.
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