Body Dysmorphic Disorder

• EMDR in practice by Greg Patrick, LCSW, 7/28/97
  
  

A new article was published which reports on seven cases of Body Dysmorphic Disorder. The following is the abstract:

Body dysmorphic disorder is an illness of generally chronic course which can lead to significant impairment of social functioning, unnecessary plastic surgery and even suicide. It is little understood and treatment regimens have been of uncertain efficacy. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is a newly developed psychotherapeutic procedure used in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder, grief reactions and generalized anxiety. In this paper we describe its use in seven consecutive cases of body dysmorphic disorder. Improvements were obtained in six of the seven patients, five of whom had a complete resolution of their symptoms.

Brown, K.W., McGoldrick, T. & Buchanan, R. (1997) Body dysmorphic disorder: Seven cases treated with Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 25, 203-207.

The cases were successfully treated in one to three sessions of EMDR. The findings support the hypotheses that disturbing experiences are at the root of this disorder, and that sufficient processing can change the self-denegrating beliefs and eliminate the symptoms.

One of the primary tenets of the previously described accelerated information processing model that guides EMDR practice is that even seemingly minor disturbances that appear trivial from an objective point of view can be subjectively traumatic and cause pathology. The clinical success with these cases is predictable from the information processing model, and assists in opening a new avenue of treatment for this and related disorders.

The only subject reporting no response was unable to engage in EMDR treatment. These findings will hopefully inspire rigorous controlled research using EMDR for this previously resistant population.

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