Assessment of body image in eating disorders with the body dysmorphic disorder examination.

The Body Dysmorphic Disorder Examination (BDDE) has several advantages for the assessment of body image in eating disorder patients. It measures distressing self-consciousness, preoccupation with appearance, overvalued ideas about the importance of appearance to one's self-worth, and body image avoidance and checking behaviors. The BDDE is relevant for any type of appearance complaint and is not limited to weight or body shape concerns. The BDDE measures the useful targets for body image therapy. In a sample of eating disorder patients, the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Exam had good internal consistency and was significantly correlated with other measures of body image. It added new information to the discrimination of women with eating disorders from clinical and nonclinical controls beyond that provided by other measures of body image.