GESTIÓN EN SALUD PÚBLICA: BioEdge: Oxytocin could relieve Body Dysmorphic Disorder

domingo, 1 de septiembre de 2019

BioEdge: Oxytocin could relieve Body Dysmorphic Disorder

BioEdge: Oxytocin could relieve Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Bioedge

Oxytocin could relieve Body Dysmorphic Disorder

by Michael Cook | 1 Sep 2019 |

Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is a nasty mental illness. Sufferers believe that parts of their body look ugly, malformed, misshapen or hideous. It leads them to pick and scratch at imagined blemishes and to have cosmetic surgery. They become socially isolated and even housebound.

(A rarer and more severe form of the disorder is body integrity dysphoria or apotemnophilia. Patients with this condition are obsessed with having a limb amputated or becoming blind or deaf. It’s quite bizarre, but in the 1990s a Scottish surgeon amputated healthy legs for two men with the condition.)

Treatment is difficult. But Australian researchers believe that Oxytocin, a hormone that facilitates trust and attachment (often called the love hormone) can bring relief. In an article published in Psychoneuroendocrinology, they reported that “oxytocin has neurobiological benefits and can be therapeutic for people with BDD.”

“Oxytocin is a powerful hormone produced in the brain which promotes positive behaviours,” co-author Izelle Labuschagne, of Australian Catholic University, says.

“People with BDD have significant social deficits including a bias in how they think others perceive their appearance, so it made sense for us to put the two together. Coming up with new treatments for BDD is important because there isn’t much out there that helps.”

A journalist for Sydney’s Catholic Weekly asked Dr Labuschagne if oxytocin might help people whose self-identity was a different gender. After all, they both sharethe notion of mental distress over embodiment. She answered that that it was outside the scope of her research and that drawing connections between BDD and transgenderism should be avoided. However, it’s hard not to suspect a connection. Perhaps oxytocin, which has been used to increase empathy, trust , generosity, romance and monogamy, could reduce gender dysphoria as well. It might be worth investigating. It would certainly be cheaper and easier than the arduous transition process.

Michael Cook is editor of BioEdge

Nearly every week, it seems, you read about the discovery of a new gene explaining inexplicable behaviour -- internet addiction, obesity, voting conservative, voting liberal, infidelity, divorce, chocaholism, alcoholism, whatever.

I recall that a few years ago a New York judge even handed down a harsher-than-usual sentence because a defendant had a gene for viewing child pornography. The fact that the gene had not been discovered did not deter him. Someday it would be.

In short, the notion of genetic determinism seems to have a full nelson on the American imagination. So it comes as no surprise that homosexuality is believed, from North to South, and East to West, to be genetically determined. The most influential voice on this score is probably Lady Gaga, whose mega-hit “Born This Way” has been viewed about 300 million times on YouTube.

Fortunately or unfortunately, it’s looking like Lady Gaga was wrong. Researchers at MIT and Harvard’s Broad Institute have found that “it is impossible to meaningfully predict an individual’s same-sex sexual behavior from genetics”. If this study holds up, it is bound to shift the goal posts in the debate over homosexuality. Read about it below and post your comments.