[Body dysmorphic disorder: clinical picture, diagnostic criteria, prevalence, course and treatment]

The article presents historical conceptions of dysmorphphobia and a review of recent references concerning aetiology, criteria for diagnosis of this disorder in new classifications of mental disorders (DSM-IV and ICD-10), course, and proposition of treatment. The author described characteristic personality traits of patients with dysmorphophobia and mental disorders, which are very often comorbid with this disorder (obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobia, delusional disorder-somatic type) and mental disorders in first-degree relatives of persons with dysmorphophobia.