Treatment
Studies have found that cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is effective in the majority of cases. In a study of 54 BDD patients who were randomly assigned to cognitive behavior therapy or no treatment, BDD symptoms decreased significantly in those patients undergoing CBT. BDD was eliminated in 82% of cases at post treatment and 77% at follow-up.
Since BDD is believed to be linked to low serotonin levels in the brain, SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) and other antidepressants are commonly prescribed. 74 subjects were enrolled in a placebo-controlled study group to evaluate the efficiency of fluoxetine (Prozac); patients were enrolled in a 12-weeks, double-blind, randomized study. At the end of treatment, 53% of patients responded to the fluoxetine.
A combined approach of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and antidepressants is more effective than either alone. The dose of a given antidepressant is usually more effective when it exceeds the maximum recommended doses that are given for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) or a major depressive episode.
Read more about this topic: Body Dysmorphic Disorder
Famous quotes containing the word treatment:
“I am glad you agree with me as to the treatment of the mining riots. We shall crush out the lawbreakers if the courts and juries do not fail.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Judge Ginsburg’s selection should be a model—chosen on merit and not ideology, despite some naysaying, with little advance publicity. Her treatment could begin to overturn a terrible precedent: that is, that the most terrifying sentence among the accomplished in America has become, “Honey—the White House is on the phone.””
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“Ambivalence reaches the level of schizophrenia in our treatment of violence among the young. Parents do not encourage violence, but neither do they take up arms against the industries which encourage it. Parents hide their eyes from the books and comics, slasher films, videos and lyrics which form the texture of an adolescent culture. While all successful societies have inhibited instinct, ours encourages it. Or at least we profess ourselves powerless to interfere with it.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)