[Prevalence and comorbidity of body dysmorphic disorder in psychiatric outpatients].

BACKGROUND

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a somatoform disorder, characterized by a patient's preoccupation with the belief that some aspect of his/her physical appearance is abnormal. The prevalence of BDD in the general population is 0.7 - 1.7%. The prevalence of BDD in patients attending a Dutch general outpatient clinic has never been examined.

AIM

Examine the prevalence of BDD in patients attending a Dutch general outpatient clinic.

METHOD

All patients aged 18 to 65 who were referred between September 2003 and July 2007 to six general outpatients clinics for treatment of a depressive disorder, an anxiety disorder, or a somatoform disorder were assessed with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (mini). Patients with BDD were also assessed by means of the Body Dysmorphic Disorder - Yale- Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (BDD-YBOCS). results BDD was diagnosed in 45 out of 5848 patients (0.8% (0.6-1.0%)). The average age of these patients was 31.1. years and 69% were female. A comorbid depressive disorder was present in 35 patients (78%) and a comorbid anxiety disorder in 26 patients (58%). Of the anxiety disorders, social phobia was the most common, with a prevalence of 27%. The average score on the BDD-YBOCS was 22.5 points. The BDD-YBOCS score was significantly higher in patients with a comorbid obsessive-compulsive disorder (35.7 points; p = 0.01).

CONCLUSION

The prevalence of BDD in psychiatric outpatients who were referred for treatment of a depressive disorder, an anxiety disorder, or a somatoform disorder was 0.8%. There was a high comorbidity of BDD with depressive and anxiety disorders.