Abnormal Psychology Homework Help

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a serious psychiatric illness that is characterized by certain characteristics including an impairing and distressing mental preoccupation with a defect in appearance which is either imagined or merely slight. Individuals that experience this somatoform disorder generally experience extremely impaired functioning in several realms, high rates of suicide attempts and ideation, as well as an overall poor quality of life (Phillips & Pagano, 2006). In addition, the prevalence of BDD is relatively high.
Researchers Phillips & Pagano (2006) recognized that the available research examining the effects of pharmacotherapy for individuals with BDD was limited. In response to this limitation, these researchers sought to investigate current and past treatments for BDD using pharmacotherapy and whether these treatments were effective in the alleviation of BDD symptoms. In particular, the researchers described the characteristics of the pharmacotherapy received, examined predictors of treatment with psychotropic medication, determined whether participants revealed their concerns regarding their appearance to the therapist, and the researchers also retrospectively looked at how effectively serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SRIs) alleviated BDD symptoms. The hypothesis of the study by Phillips & Pagano (2006) was non directional, in that it was not explicitly stated whether the expected outcome of the study would show favorable or unfavorable results for the use of pharmacotherapy for the treatment of BDD.
Participants included in the study were people who presented with DSM-IV BDD and were taking part in naturalistic study that was investigating the clinical course of BDD. All of the data used in this study were from evaluations established at the study’s intake, so all the treatment data are observational. In particular, inclusion criteria for the study were diagnosed lifetime DSM-I