New Treatment for Body Dysmorphic Disorder Shows Promise
Michael Jackson’s ongoing transformation that included major changes to his nose, skin color, and other facial features, may have been as a result of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). BDD is a disorder in which anxiety causes sufferers to seek major modifications to their body, often with less-than-satisfactory results.
According to scientists at the University of Montreal’s Fernand-Seguin Research Center at the Louis-H. LaFontaine Hospital in Montreal, people who suffer from BDD spend their lives seeking out plastic surgeons and other professionals to make radical changes in their bodies, and when the changes do not result in relief, they simply move on to other modifications.
The Montreal researchers are hoping a new therapy may help BDD sufferers, whose extreme modifications typically emphasize making changes to their skin, noses, and stomachs as well as hair and eyes. Kieron O’Connor, director of the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Tic Disorder Studies Centre at Louis-H. Lafontaine Hospital, explains that what these people need, rather than doctors who comply with their wishes for excessive modifications, is “psychological support and assistance.”
Dr. O’Connor, along with doctoral student Annie Taillon, have worked together to create a behavioral therapy approach to treating BDD that has had promising results, says Taillon. “Our preliminary results are very promising. We observed a clear decrease in appearance-related fixations among participants and a reduction by more than half in ritualized behaviors. Nearly one third of the depressive symptoms associated with these fixations also disappeared,” explained Taillon.
Because people with this disorder often will not seek help from psychological professionals, it is difficult to reach them. About 650,000 Americans and 350,000 Canadians suffer from BDD. The behavior therapy developed by the University of Montreal is one of the first of its kind to show such promise in helping to alleviate some of the anxiety that pushes sufferers to make such extreme body modifications.
An anonymous sufferer who volunteered to be a part of the research project saw first-hand the results of the therapy developed by O’Connor and Taillon. She was able to return to work and stop fixating on her body. The research resulted in an overall reduction in appearance fixations of 46 percent and a more than 50 percent decrease in ritualized behaviors associated with BDD.
Shadra Bruce is a contributing writer for Mental Health News.