Continuing the discussion on an earlier blog post about Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), a recent study finds that “only two percent of procedures actually reduced the severity of BDD”. The study published in the Annals of Plastic Surgery was done on 300 individuals who suffered from BDD. The study found that even after receiving surgical or non-surgical treatments, almost all participants continued to have BDD symptoms and some even developed new symptoms.
The study also reported that nearly 65% of surveyed cosmetic surgeons reported that they continued treating BDD patients but that only one percent of the patients treated had improvements in their BDD symptoms.
The study showed that the most common requested surgical treatments were for rhinoplasty and breast augmentation. The most common non-surgical treatments were for collagen injections and microdermabrasion treatment for the skin. The study also found that more than a third of the patients underwent procedures over and over again.
Bottom line: The study’s authors conclude that there is a need to further investigate BDD and that physicians need to be aware that BDD patients can be effectively treated with psychiatric treatments for BDD.
BDD as mentioned in the earlier blog is a psychiatric disorder where patients are preoccupied with an imaginary or slight defect in their own appearance to the extent that they may get stressed over it and seek multiple treatments to keep correcting the same defects over and over again.
Leave a Reply