Someone who isn't qualified to make a BDD diagnosis before (or who didn't) certainly isn't qualified to make one after the HT.
Crappy work by the doc is not equal to BDD in the patient or indicative of an overly self-conscious patient.
The crappy case is that a doc might say prior to the HT, "Yeah, we can do an HT on you, no problem and you'll look great." He does the HT regardless of the patient's mental state or education, and does a poor job. Then post op, when the patient complains of poor work, the doc magical diagnosis is BDD.
The doc has played both sides of the fence and is attempting to avoid blame for a poor job.
Pre-op: "I recommend we do the surgery. You'll look great." Post-op: "You are too worried about your appearance, you know. You look okay. Get over it or get help."
What a bunch of baloney.

vocor1

__________________
vocor1
Knowledge is Power
-- The truth only matters if you know about it.

Wow - just a third party view here:

I don't think Paul148 was in need of being told to "relax" and to stop being "so childish", actually. No offence either, I think he just gave a very thoughtful discourse on the dangers of generalizations when drawing assumptions, as there are clearly more elements involved in psychology than many of us "Armchair Psychologists" are aware of - doesn't mean we shouldn't take note of them either, whatever one's slant on the angle may be. In retrospect, I think you will see that both of your posts are still being written for the same cause.

Everyone IS giving good, well thought-out, and considered opinions and ideas here.

I'm sure there was no intention to step on anyone's toes even if that's how one was tempted to feel - at first glance...

[This message was edited by HarryLemon on January 03, 2003 at 04:28 PM.]

Thanks for the info. I guess I'm more "normal" than I thought.

Not to beat this one to death any more than it has been, but I was a neuropsychology clinician years ago before respecialising in my current field. I worked with psychiatrists and physicians all the time, as a member of a multidisciplinary treatment team. Though my work was primarily in the assessment of cognitive functioning/dysfunction following brain injury and stroke, I also did my fair share of more general psychological evaluations, which involved personality assessment.

The pronouncement of a diagnosis as complicated as BDD is not easily done. I'm with the posters who argue that this is a new means of dismissing claims against HT clinics and companies.

I wonder if some of the more reputable surgeons on this site have encountered this syndrome (assuming they could diagnose it if they saw it) in the numerous patients they've seen?

Does Bosley have, in addition to their cracker-jack HT services, psychiatric specialists? Maybe those guys in the white lab coats are shrinks -- hell, they're allowed to create a treatment plan, right? Being shrinks on the side would not be a far stretch for them.

Or maybe all the wacko patients go to the chain operations for their work, knowing that they will sue in long run, anyway.

Where are the ethics in all of this???