Cognitive therapy in body dysmorphic disorder

It is now increasingly recognized that body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) shares many clinical features and maintaining processes with obsessive-compulsive disorders (e.g., ritualistic compulsive behaviors, recurrent persistent thoughts) and social anxiety disorder (e.g., excessive self-focused attention, mental imagery). More recent treatment approaches of BDD focus on the modification of the common maintaining processes. These approaches combine traditional cognitive-behavioral techniques (exposure with response prevention and cognitive restructuring) with cognitive therapy interventions (attentional training, imagery rescripting, videofeedback, behavioral experiments). In the present article, these treatment components are described in detail. The interventions of cognitive therapy have proven to be efficient in clinical practice, but are not yet empirically evaluated for BDD.