[Dysmorphophobia: past and present of a centuries-old disorders]

Abstract

Dysmorphophobia is a very interesting psychiatric syndrome that remains controversial, despite it being described more than a century ago. Current knowledge allow us to think of it as a clinical entity in itself, but its relationship with affective disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder remain unclear. Delusional and non-delusional dysmorphophobia might be two separate disorders or, more likely, variants of the same disorder. Several therapeutic approaches have shown efficacy in the treatment of this condition, like pimozide, serotonergic antidepressants and cognitive-behaviour therapy, but well controlled clinical trials are lacking. It has still to be determined to what extent all this findings about dysmorphophobia in clinical samples do apply to people with body image disorders in the general population.