"Motivations, Demography, and Clinical Features of Body Dysmorphic Disorder Among People Seeking Cosmetic Treatments: A Study of 199 Patients"

Background: Motivations for getting aesthetic medicine treatments concern not only the improvement of the physical appearance but also internal aspects such as feeling more confident or happier. Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a disorder that affects from 5 to 15% of aesthetic medicine clients and characterizes by an obsessive preoccupation with a non-visible or minimal defect in appearance.

Aims: The aim of the study was to assess the main motivations, demography, and clinical features of body dysmorphic disorder among people seeking cosmetic treatments.

Methods: A single-center study was performed using an anonymous questionnaire on 199 patients of the private aesthetic medicine clinic in Gdansk, Poland.

Results: A typical client of an aesthetic clinic is a woman aged 40 to 50, with higher education, who undergoes aesthetic treatments more than twice a year, mainly with botulinum toxin injections. The most common motivations are the desire to achieve a fresh look, the will to reduce the signs of aging, and to invest in oneself. Furthermore, over 38% of patients stated that they were having critical and recurring thoughts about their appearance, which affected their daily functioning and caused a decrease in their well-being. Almost 20% of them performed repetitive activities, such as frequently looking in the mirror or asking others for opinions about their appearance. 15.6% of patients presented at least two characteristic features of BDD.

Conclusions: Patients seeking cosmetic treatments may suffer from body dysmorphic disorder, thus the need for aesthetic medicine practitioners to be aware of this disease.