Abstract
Objectives: To identify patients with high probability of having body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) before attempting any surgical procedure. BDD is a preoccupation with perceived defects in physical appearance that are not observable to others. Those with this disorder frequently resort to cosmetic procedures and the majority will not be satisfied with results because of the psychiatric origin of their symptoms. Prevalence of BDD is higher in patients who request cosmetic surgery. Unfortunately, we are unaware of any screening tool in Arabic language.
Design: Prospective observational study. The Cosmetic Procedure Screening Questionnaire (COPS) was translated into Arabic language. Validation was achieved by back translation and by testing it on bilingual subjects. The developed instrument was then tested on Arabic speaking cosmetic surgery patients.
Setting: King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Subjects: Bilingual subjects fluent in both Arabic and English. For the second phase, patients were recruited from the facial plastic outpatient clinic of a teaching university hospital.
Intervention: Use of COPS for Arabic speaking cosmetic surgery patients as a BDD tool
Main outcome measure: Not applicable
Results: Sixty responses from bilingual subjects showed high internal consistency (cronbach's alpha of 0.798 and 0.780 for the original and translated COPS, respectively). In the second phase, 166 responses showed significant internal consistency with cronbach's alpha of 0.863. Eleven patients (6.63%) were found to have BDD; nearly double the prevalence in our community sample (3.33%)
Conclusion: The tool was found reliable, feasible, and easy to administer as a BDD screening tool for Arabic speaking subjects.