Evaluation of Symptom Patterns and Frequency of Body Dysmorphic Disorder in Students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is one of the somatoform disorders characterized by excessively concerned with an imagined or slight defect in appearance. As frequency of BDD is reported differently in literature and BDD is more frequent in students, we decided to evaluate the symptoms pattern and frequency of body image concerns and BDD in students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. In this cross sectional study, 500 randomly selected students filled the demographic forms and BDD questionnaire (BDDQ) and results were analyzed by SPSS and statistical chi square, independent t and analysis variance tests. ean age was 23.45 years. Prevalence of body image concerns was 34.4% (172 students) and prevalence of BDD was 7.4%. The most common concerns were about face especially nosed and skin (68 students). Sex differences were not statistically meaningful (p=0.242) and all of BDD students were single. BDD and body image concerns are prevalent among Iranian students. Body image concern patterns of Iranian and western students were different.