Suicide risk high with body image obsession
Reuters Health
Wednesday, August 2, 2006
By Anne Harding
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with "body dysmorphic disorder" are 45 times more likely to commit suicide than people in the general population, a new study shows.
The findings underscore the importance of recognizing and treating this "often secretive" psychiatric disorder, Dr. Katherine A. Phillips, the study's co-author, told Reuters Health.
Individuals with body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD, have a distorted body image and think obsessively about their appearance, often for hours a day, explained Phillips, who is at Butler Hospital and Brown Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island.
The disorder frequently leads to self-loathing and social isolation, she added. It is not uncommon for people with BDD to tell no one about their condition, even a spouse or very close friends.
"I've worked with these patients for about 15 years now," Phillips added. "In my clinical experience they're often thinking about suicide. They're an unusually distressed group of people."
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_36836.html