Characterisation of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) versus obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): In light of current DSM-5 nosology

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocrd.2017.01.002Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We present a comparative study of clinical characteristics in BDD versus OCD.

  • Comorbid mood and anxiety disorders were prevalent in both disorders.

  • Comorbid OCD in primary BDD (33.3% lifetime) was more prevalent than vice versa.

  • Avoidant and obsessive-compulsive PDs were common in BDD and OCD respectively.

  • Insight was significantly more impaired in BDD, despite comparable illness severity.

Section snippets

Background

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is characterised by repetitive behaviours and/or mental acts occurring in response to preoccupations with perceived defects or flaws in physical appearance (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Research has offered comprehensive characterisation of BDD within a range of cohorts: In adolescence (Dyl et al., 2006, Grant et al., 2001), inpatient (Conroy et al., 2008, Grant et al., 2001) versus outpatient (Zimmerman & Mattia, 1998) settings, as well as cosmetic

Participants and procedure

Participants were 21 BDD and 19 OCD patients recruited from a specialised outpatient psychiatric service as well as community sources (private psychiatric clinic at St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne n=23; consumer support group run by Anxiety Recovery Centre Victoria n=7; advertisements on university newsletter Monash Memo n=7; Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre participant database n=3). Based on a null personal and immediate family history of diagnosed psychiatric disorders, 21 healthy

Sociodemographic characteristics

A range of sociodemographic characteristics were examined (Table 1). In line with planned recruitment strategies, no significant mean age or IQ differences were observed, but there was an over-representation of females across all groups. In addition, there was a significant association between group and marital status. Only roughly a third of clinical participants were partnered (i.e. married or in a de facto relationship), with the rest being single, separated or divorced.

The BDD group was

Discussion

The current study aimed to directly compare BDD and OCD on a range of sociodemographic and clinical variables. Reports on education and employment conditions were largely in agreement with literature documenting substantial socioeconomic impairment in BDD and OCD (e.g. Didie et al., 2007), and similar proportions of BDD and OCD groups were unpartnered. Slightly different (but non-significant) patterns were observed in their academic and work lives; participants with BDD tended to be less

Authors’ disclosures

None.

Role of funding source

None.

Contributors

Author Toh wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and Authors Rossell and Castle provided scientific input and editorial assistance. All authors contributed to and approved the final version.

Conflict of interest

None.

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