Prevalence of body dysmorphic disorder in a German psychiatric inpatient sample

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a distressing or impairing preoccupation with an imagined or slight defect in appearance. Only a few studies have examined BDD prevalence in psychiatric settings. Prevalence rates vary widely and most studies have been conducted in outpatient samples. In the current study, we examined 155 adult psychiatric inpatients. Diagnostic criteria of BDD were assessed with the BDD module of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. The prevalence of lifetime BDD was 2.6% (95% CI=0.1-5.1%). Currently 1.9% of the patients suffered from BDD (95% CI=0.0-4.0%). None of these patients were diagnosed with BDD on admission or during hospitalization. The BDD rates found in this study are considerably lower than lifetime and current prevalence rates reported by two other studies conducted in adult psychiatric inpatient settings (Grant et al., 2001; Conroy et al., 2008). The differences may be explained by divergent sample compositions and variation in diagnostic measures. The findings of the current study underline the need for further studies examining BDD prevalence in psychiatric settings and suggest using a combination of screening questionnaire and follow-up interview to diagnose BDD.