Body dysmorphic disorder, formerly known as dysmorphophobia, is the fixation with an illusory defect in a typical persons appearance. Patients with the disorder are consumed by the thought that something about their body is extremely unattractive. They express excessive apprehension with a non-existent physical defect and become so preoccupied that they act upon many time-consuming rituals of to try and fix the defect and incessantly check their appearances.
Facial flaws and abnormalities are the most chief focuses of patients with body dysmorphic disorder, informally known as BDD. Specific flaws include large noses, poor skin, baldness, wrinkles, and anything the patient remarks to be unattractive about themselves. However, while a patients face is commonly the primary concern, any body part can be the main concern. This typically includes deformities of body size or shape, and even disfigurements of sexual body parts (Allen & Hollander, 2000). With these preconceived notions about themselves, patients with the disorder commonly attempt to scrutinize, conceal, or alter the abnormalities they feel they have. BDD patients perform obsessive rituals or repetitive behaviors in attempts to mask the flaw(s). They may regularly check their appearances in the mirror, perform incessant grooming, or even seek cosmetic surgical options. To meet the criteria of BDD, the patients preoccupation must cause substantial distress or impairment in daily functioning. In the DSM-IV, BDD is classified as a somatoform disorder (Allen & Hollander, 2000). A somatoform disorder is discernible by corporeal complaints for which no organic or physiological explanation is found and for which there is a strong probability that psychological factors are indeed involved.
There is comorbidity between body dysmorphic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), although there is only mild evidence that the two are truthfully interconnected.