Using theories of delusion formation to explain abnormal beliefs in Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)

Susan L Rossell; Izelle Labuschagne; Judy Dunai; Michael Kyrios; David J Castle

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2013.12.030

Using theories of delusion formation to explain abnormal beliefs in Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)

Psychiatry Res. 2014 Mar 30;215(3):599-605. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2013.12.030. Epub 2013 Dec 24.

Authors

Susan L Rossell¹, Izelle Labuschagne², Judy Dunai³, Michael Kyrios⁴, David J Castle⁵

Affiliations

¹ Brain and Psychological Sciences Research Centre, Faculty of Life and Social Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia; Monash Alfred Psychiatry research centre (MAPrc), The Alfred Hospital and Monash University Central Clinical School, 607 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne, Australia; Departments of Behavioural Science and Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; Department of Psychiatry, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.
² School of Psychological Sciences, Faculty Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Electronic address: izelle.labuschagne@monash.edu.
³ Departments of Behavioural Science and Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
⁴ Brain and Psychological Sciences Research Centre, Faculty of Life and Social Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.
⁵ Departments of Behavioural Science and Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; Department of Psychiatry, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia.

PMID: 24412353
DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2013.12.030

Abstract

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is characterised by overvalued or delusional beliefs of 'imagined ugliness'. Delusional beliefs have been explained by a number of cognitive theories, including faulty perceptions, biases in attention, and corruption of semantic memory. Atypical aesthetics may also influence beliefs in BDD. In fourteen BDD patients, compared to controls (n=14), we examined these theories of beliefs in a cognitive test battery consisting of perceptual organisation and visual affect perception tasks, a Stroop task using body words, a sentence verification task, a fluency task, and an attractiveness task. BDD patients performed similar to controls on tasks measuring information (bias) processing and aesthetics. However, BDD showed abnormal abilities on semantic processing involving sentence verification and category fluency. There was only a trend finding of impaired performance on perceptual processing tasks in BDD. The findings suggest that the delusional beliefs in BDD may be explained by impaired semantic processing.

Keywords: Body Dysmorphic Disorder; Cognition; Delusions; Perception; Semantics.

MeSH terms

Adult
Attention*
Body Dysmorphic Disorders / psychology*
Body Image / psychology*
Case-Control Studies
Delusions / psychology*
Female
Humans
Imagination
Male
Middle Aged
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Regression Analysis
Self Concept*