Glossary of terms
| AAI | Appearance Anxiety Inventory – a weekly measure for BDD available on this site |
| BDD | Body Dysmorphic Disorder |
| BIDQ | The Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire – a screening measure for BDD |
| Clinical audit | A process for monitoring standards of clinical care to see if it is being carried out in the best way possible (known as ‘best practice’). You may want to ask about about the audit data for a service for treating BDD |
| Clinical Commissioning Group | Refers to UK NHS funding by a local service to go specialist service |
| Comorbidity | A disorder or condition that someone has in addition to the diagnosis or problem being treated |
| Control group | A group of people in a study who do not receive the experimental treatment or test being studied. Instead they may receive the standard treatment (‘usual care’) or a dummy treatment (placebo). The results for the control group are compared with those for a group receiving the treatment being tested. Control groups do not always do worse than the experimental treatment and often do just as well. |
| COPS | Cosmetic Procedure Screening questionnaire designed as a screening measure for BDD in cosmetic settings and as a measure of severity of BDD symptoms. |
| Dysmorphophobia | The original name for BDD coined by an Italian psychiatrist in 1896 |
| Exposure | Procedure for gradually facing one’s fears in a graded manner |
| HSS for OCD and BDD | Highly Specialised Service for severe treatment refractory OCD and BDD. A tertiary care service commissioned by the Department of Health in the UK when a patient fulfills certain criteria for OCD or BDD and funding is agreed at a monthly conference |
| IAPT (England) | Improving Access to Psychological Therapies. Initiative to increase access to evidence based psychological therapies such as CBT in England. There is similar scheme in Wales and Scotland. They should offer CBT for BDD |
| Muscle dysmorphophobia | A type of BDD in which a person is preoccupied by their muscles being too puny |
| NSCT | National Commissioning Group for the NHS – Now called the Highly Specialised Service for OCD and BDD – see HSS above |
| NSCT | National Specialist Commissioning Team for the NHS. Now called the Highly Specialised Service for OCD and BDD – see HSS above |
| NICE | National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence – an independent NHS organisation in the UK responsible for providing national guidance on promoting good health, and preventing and treating ill health. |
| NICE Guidelines on BDD | NICE Clinical Guideline – NICE guidance on the treatment and care of people with a specific disorder or condition in the NHS. There are NICE Guidelines for treating BDD www.nice.org.uk/CG031 |
| OCD | Obsessive Compulsive Disorder –a closely related condition to BDD |
| PCT | Primary Care Trust. Refers to NHS funding by local service in the UK. This has now been replaced by a Clinical Commissioning Group |
| PTSD | Post Traumatic Stress Disorder |
| RCT | Randomised Controlled Trial – a study in which similar people (e.g. people suffering from BDD) are randomly assigned to two (or more) groups to test the effectiveness of a specific drug or treatment. The experimental group receives the treatment being tested; control group receives an alternative treatment, (for example a dummy treatment (placebo) or no treatment at all.) The groups are followed up to assess effectiveness of the experimental treatment. The outcomes are measured at specific times and any difference in response between the groups is assessed statistically. |
| Response prevention | Response prevention refers to the process of preventing a ritual – for example not checking in a mirror or not comparing |
| Risk factor | Any aspect of a person’s lifestyle, environment, or pre-existing health condition that may increase their risk of developing a specific disease or condition – for example in BDD, risk factors may include being teased or bullied in childhood and adolescence |
| Safety Seeking Behaviour | Any action (physical or mental) taken in a feared situation with the intention of preventing catastrophe and reducing harm. These often prevent disconfirmation of the feared consequences (e.g. being rejected or humiliated) |
| SSRI | Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor. A type of anti-depressant used for BDD. An adequate dose is usually in the highest range or maximum tolerated |
| Termination Criteria | The additional criteria used to terminate a compulsion in BDD. These are based on emotional criteria e.g. feeling right or comfortable and are problematic as they maintain compulsions. |
| BDD-YBOCS | Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale modified for BDD. This is a 12-item observer rated scale. One of the criteria for HSS funding is that the patient must score above 36 out of 48 for severity |