Breast Implant Illness Through a Psychiatric Lens

Since their introduction in the 1960's, the safety of silicone breast implants has remained contentious due to concerns regarding carcinogenicity as well as a growing array of adverse psychiatric symptoms, which have now been termed 'Breast Implant Illness.' This article aims to explore the merits of a psychiatric approach to treating Breast Implant Illness by outlining how it is defined by psychiatric symptoms and categorized alongside other psychiatric illnesses. Furthermore, it is unclear whether the pathology of Breast Implant Illness is purely medical or psychiatric. However, the efficacy of the medical approach to treatment through a process called explantation, which involves removal of the implant and surrounding scar tissue, or capsule, is not strongly supported by existing data. A psychiatric approach to treatment, in conjunction with explanation, thus holds potential in remedying the novel and poorly understood Breast Implant Illness.Level of Evidence V This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .