The effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group therapy on reducing body dysmorphic disorder and interpersonal sensitivity among female high school students

The aim of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group therapy on reducing body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and interpersonal sensitivity among female high school students in Ahvaz, Iran.

In this clinical trial, multistage random sampling was used to select 800 students. The subjects completed the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (modified for BDD) and interpersonal sensitivity subscale of symptom checklist 90 (SCL-90). Then, 75 individuals with the highest scores in both scales were identified. Finally, 30 subjects from the 75 mentioned patients were selected and randomly assigned into two groups of experimental and control (n = 15 in each group). The experimental group was treated through 12 60-minute sessions of cognitive-behavioral group therapy based on Greenberg method. At the end, posttest was performed and the results were analyzed by analysis of covariance.

The scores of BDD and interpersonal sensitivity were significantly different between the experimental and control groups.

Our findings showed that cognitive-behavioral group therapy had an important role in reducing BDD and interpersonal sensitivity.