Leuven, Belgium — A Belgian study suggests that 33 percent of patients seeking rhinoplasty show moderate-to-severe symptoms of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), globenewswire.com reports.
Over a 16-month period, researchers at University Hospitals Leuven distributed a BDD questionnaire and other surveys to 266 patients seeking rhinoplasty. Thirty-three percent of patients demonstrated moderate-to-severe symptoms of BDD, a figure that rose to 43 percent for those were seeking rhinoplasty strictly for aesthetic reasons. By comparison, moderate-to-severe BDD symptoms were found in 2 percent of patients undergoing nasal surgery for medical reasons.
Twenty percent of patients had had a previous rhinoplasty and were more likely to have high BDD symptom scores. Symptoms of BDD also were more frequent among patients with a history of psychiatric problems.
“This study shows that the prevalence of BDD symptoms in a cosmetic rhinoplasty population is high and that the severity of symptoms has a clearly negative effect on daily functioning,” the authors wrote. “Large-scale and long-term prospective outcome studies investigating the influence of BDD symptoms on outcomes are imperative, as they will help us in the establishment of guidelines concerning patient selection in aesthetic surgery.”
The study appears in the August issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
