Prevalence of body dysmorphic disorder in medical versus nonmedical students: a questionnaire based pilot study

Objective: To prepare a dermatologic version of body dysmorphic disorder [BDD] questionnaire and to ascertain and compare the prevalence of BDD among the medical students versus general university students in Pakistani community

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Subjects and Methods: This was a prospective questionnaire-based pilot study conducted at dermatology department of Nawaz Sharif Social Security Teaching Hospital affiliated with The University of Lahore. After informed consent, 400 students, half from medical college and half from non medical institutions, were interviewed with a self reporting questionnaire and evaluated for BDD by employing the clinical parameters as per DSM-5

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Results: The age range of participant students was 18-26 years in both the groups and 97.5% were unmarried. In group A, 72 students were males and 128 were females while in group B, 77 were males and 123 were females. The top areas of concern in both the groups were density of scalp hair, acne and its sequelae, skin type and dark complexion of skin with female preponderance in both the groups. Although 35% students were preoccupied to some extent but the prevalence of subjective distress to the threshold of BDD was found in 5% medical students compared to 10% nonmedical students, with female dominance in both the groups

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Conclusion: Our study reflects that BDD is relatively more frequent among general university students compared to medical students with overall predominance of female gender