Body Integrity Disorder (BIID) is a condition where patients feel compelled to amputate healthy limbs or seek disabilities. It is similar to Gender Identity Disorder and begins in childhood. Patients may feel isolated and struggle to find treatment, resorting to dangerous methods. DSM-V will include a definition of the condition, making it easier to treat. Patients hope for elective surgical procedures in the future.
Body Integrity Disorder (BIID) is a medical condition in which the patient feels compelled to amputate one or more healthy limbs. Patients may also be attracted by disabilities such as blindness or paraplegia. Serious research into body identity disorder began in the late 1990s when psychologists recognized it as a condition very similar to gender identity disorder. For people who are unfamiliar with body identity disorder, the condition can seem very confusing.
As with Gender Identity Disorder, Body Integrity Identity Disorder appears to begin in childhood. From a young age, the patient has a sense of incompleteness that he feels can only be resolved by removing a limb or undertaking a drastic body modification. The roots of the condition are not fully understood, although a number of theories have been put forward. As the patient ages, the thoughts and desires associated with the condition can be very isolating, as the patient may believe that they are alone in feeling this way.
Because body identity disorder is not widely understood in society at large, the patient may feel anxious, depressed, and frustrated, just as transgender individuals do. He or she may try to suppress the urges in an attempt to adjust, or go in the opposite direction, pretending the amputation has already occurred. Some people with the condition express jealousy when they see amputees and may eventually seek an elective amputation.
Most surgeons and medical professionals will not offer elective amputation and similar procedures because they feel it is against medical ethics. As a result, patients with Body Integrity Identity Disorder often have difficulty finding treatment. Some try to amputate their limbs themselves, a potentially very dangerous solution. Others may visit underground practitioners, who may not operate under safe conditions. Most commonly, the patient severely injures the limb in question, in hopes of forcing a doctor to amputate it.
Dr. Michael First was one of the first medical professionals to recognize and attempt to define the condition, in hopes of making treatment available to patients who need it. A definition of the condition will be included in DSM-V, which is slated for a 2012 publication. Inclusion in DSM-V will make the condition much easier to treat, as it will be more widely recognized by the medical community. Patients with body identity disorder hope that elective surgical procedures may one day be available to help them, much like gender reassignment surgery used to treat people with gender dysphoria.
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