Study: Surgery won’t help serious image issues

PROVIDENCE – When you hate the way you look – not just a little, but enough to have it disrupt your life – plastic surgery is a tempting option, and many people with body dysmorphic disorder seek surgery and minimally invasive treatments to “correct” the perceived problems.
However, a new study shows, patients who get the desired procedures rarely stop feeling awful about their appearance, even if they do feel better about the one detail they fixed.
The study, published in the July issue of the Annals of Plastic Surgery, was conducted by researchers at Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School – and affiliated with Rhode Island Hospital and Butler Hospital – and a colleague at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
The researchers evaluated the treatment histories of 200 people diagnosed with body dysmorphic disorder, including 42 patients who’d gotten surgery or minimally invasive treatments, and 158 who had not. They also evaluated the outcomes of the procedures, and the reasons for denial of requested treatments.
They found that surgery and minimally invasive treatments were more likely than other cosmetic procedures to decrease patients’ preoccupation with the treated body part, but overall, the severity of body dysmorphic disorder symptoms only improved with 2.3 percent of the treatments.
Cost and doctors’ refusal were the most common reasons why treatment was denied in the other cases, the study found, but overall, doctors were more likely to provide the requested surgical and minimally invasive treatments than other requested cosmetic treatments, despite what the researchers called the “poor long-term outcome.”