Awareness and experiences of cosmetic treatment providers with Body Dysmorphic Disorder in Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional study (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is defined as, constant obsession about one’s external appearance and flaws. Which is considered a psychological disorder, were people suffering from this issue might seek help from cosmetic procedure providers. Such as dermatologists or plastic surgeons. OBJECTIVE Nowadays, there is a huge increase in cosmetic procedures done worldwide and in Saudi Arabia. Yet there are no enough studies conducted in our region to assess the awareness of BDD among physicians who provide any kind of cosmetic procedures and treatment. In regard to their attitude toward such cases, and how would they manage it. METHODS Our study is a quantitative (observational) cross sectional study, conducted among all cosmetic procedure providers, such as Dermatologist, Otorhinolaryngologists who Provide cosmetic treatments, and Plastic Surgeons. A four paged questionnaire has been distributed among physicians, in governmental hospitals and also among physicians working in cosmetic clinics. The questionnaire was a close-ended one, which had four different sections. Then data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22.0. RESULTS Total number of participants was 155, majority were males, by a number of 113 (72.9%), while 42 (27.1%) were female. 52 (33.5%) reported being totally familiar with the clinical picture of BDD. More than half of physicians reported that they have familiar with the diagnostic criteria of BDD during their practice by a number of 82 (52.9%). A number of physicians 63 (40.6%), estimated the prevalence of BDD in cosmetic practice to range from (1%-5%). Physicians also reported BDD to be more common among females. 76 (49%) of physicians sometimes share the knowledge about BDD with their patients if they are suspecting them to have it CONCLUSIONS Recently, cosmetic treatments are more available to everyone, which lead to an influx of undiagnosed BDD patients electing to perform unnecessary cosmetic treatments. Therefore, physicians should have the clinical knowledge about BDD, on how to diagnose and how to manage. To avoid unnecessary costly procedures.