BDD

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is published by the American Psychiatric Association and provides clinicians with official definitions of, and criteria for, diagnosing mental disorders.

The current edition of the DSM (DSM-IV) categorises Obsessive-Compulsive-Disorder (OCD) under 'Anxiety Disorders'. However, some experts have controversially suggested that the upcoming revised edition of the DSM proposes removes OCD from this category and grouping it with putatively related conditions under the heading of 'related OCD conditions'. The proposed OCD-related conditions would include Obsessive–Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD), Tic disorders, Hypochondriasis, Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), Trichotillomania and other grooming disorders, Eating disorders, Pathological Gambling (PG) and other Impulse-control disorders, including alcohol and substance dependence and Kleptomania.

People suffering from BDD — a severe mental illness characterised by debilitating misperceptions that one appears disfigured and ugly — process visual information abnormally, even when looking at inanimate objects, according to a new UCLA study.

First author Dr. Jamie Feusner, a UCLA assistant professor of psychiatry, and colleagues found that patients with BDD have less brain activity when processing holistic visual elements that provide the 'big picture', regardless of whether that picture is a face or an object. The research appears in the current online edition of the journal Psychological Medicine.