A man in Canada has had two fingers amputated to cure his body dysmorphia.
The unnamed patient, 20, said he had had “incessant,” intrusive thoughts about the fourth and fifth fingers of his left hand since childhood.
His doctors at Université Laval in Quebec wrote that while he understood the fingers were his, he felt “they did not belong to his body.”
The sawmill worker was plagued by nightmares of fingers being burned or rotting, and he even considered building a small, makeshift guillotine because “he couldn’t imagine living with those fingers for years to come.”
The medical team said the patient sought surgical amputation because otherwise he would do it himself, “with the aim of relieving his intense suffering.”
An unnamed patient in Canada had two fingers removed because he felt “they did not belong to his body,” his doctors wrote in a case report
Australian man Robert Vickers (above) famously suffered from BIID and twice used dry ice to irreparably damage his leg so doctors were forced to amputate it
However, after doctors removed both fingers, the man’s emotional distress immediately disappeared.
Doctors diagnosed him with body integrity identity disorder (BIID), a rare body shape dysmorphia that causes patients to want at least one healthy limb to be amputated or paralyzed.
BIID can affect any part of the body, including legs, arms, fingers, toes, eyes, ears and teeth.
a 2023 study in Healthcare magazine found that most patients choose to have their left leg removed. Some participants said they chose left over right because they needed their right leg to drive.
So far, only 200 cases have been reported in the medical literature, and experts are still working to find the cause of the bizarre condition. However, it is believed to be caused by a discrepancy between a person’s mental image of their body and their actual appearance.
a 2020 study for example, in the magazine Cell recruited 16 men who want to remove their healthy left leg from an online support group,
The team found that people with BIID had noticeable changes in their brain structure, such as the paracentral lobule, which controls how we sense and interpret feedback from the lower limbs.
These patients had reduced connectivity between the paracentral lobe and other parts of their brain.
In addition, the right superior parietal lobe, which is responsible for a person’s overall body image, had reduced connectivity and lower gray matter density. Gray matter is needed to help regulate emotions.
The researchers in the case report said distress caused by BIID could lead patients to “attempt self-amputation, endangering their lives.”
“The limited literature on this condition poses challenges in establishing clear guidelines and recommendations,” the team wrote.
‘Patients are often reluctant to seek help from healthcare professionals and turn to internet forums for advice, making assessment of the true prevalence of BID difficult.’
‘Nevertheless, surgery should be carefully considered as a treatment option for this lesser-known condition.’
According to the Cleveland Clinic, patients who “harm” themselves by amputating their own limbs can suffer from uncontrolled bleeding, infections, nerve damage, severe pain and phantom limb pain – the perception of pain or discomfort in a limb that is no longer there. .
While many patients choose to keep their symptoms secret, others have spoken out about their intense desire to amputate their own limbs.
For example, Robert Vickers of Australia told the Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC) that from the age of ten he felt that his left leg below the knee did not belong with the rest of his body.
This led him to use dry ice twice to damage his leg, although neither attempt worked.
“I would appreciate if a surgeon or hospital in the Sydney area could come forward and possibly offer me their services,” he said. It is unclear whether doctors ultimately followed through.
The case study was published in the journal Clinical case reports.