Psychiatric Mental Health, part 36: Disorders - Gender Dysphoria & Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Hi, I'm Cathy with Level Up RN. In this video, I am going to continue my coverage of disorders from our psychiatric mental health nursing flashcard deck. Specifically, I will be talking about gender dysphoria and body dysmorphic disorder. So if you have our flashcards, go ahead and pull them out, so you can follow along with me. Gender dysphoria is a conflict between a person's gender that they were assigned to at birth and the gender that the individual identifies with. In terms of signs and symptoms, an individual with gender dysphoria will have a strong desire to be another gender, they often have a strong dislike of their sexual anatomy, and they often reject traits that are associated with their assigned gender. Gender dysphoria is diagnosed when these feelings are present for at least six months and cause the individual significant distress and/or cause issues with the individual's academic or social functioning. Treatment options include talk therapy, hormonal therapy, as well as gender confirmation surgeries. Gender dysphoria can cause significant turmoil in the individual's life, including conflict with friends and family, as well as rejection from society. This is a vulnerable population that is at increased risk for depression, anxiety, substance abuse, as well as self-harm and suicide. So in terms of nursing care, you want to screen your patient for these risks. In addition to provide a supportive and inclusive environment, you should refer to your patient by their preferred name and pronouns.

Moving on to body dysmorphic disorder now. Individuals with body dysmorphic disorder will have an intense preoccupation with perceived flaws or defects in their physical appearance, but these flaws or defects will not be noticeable to others or only slightly noticeable to others. Signs and symptoms of this disorder include spending an extensive amount of time in front of the mirror, picking at the skin, and trying to cover up the perceived flaws or defects with makeup or with clothes. Individuals with this disorder tend to be perfectionists and frequently seek reassurance from others regarding their physical appearance. Body dysmorphic disorder is diagnosed when the patient's preoccupation with their appearance is so time-consuming and so distressing that it interferes with their social, occupational, or academic functioning. And because psychiatric comorbidities are very common with body dysmorphic disorder, the patient should be screened for depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders. Treatment of body dysmorphic disorder includes cognitive behavioral therapy, as well as medications such as SSRIs and SSNRIs. As the nurse, you should definitely screen your patient for substance use disorder, as well as suicide ideation. All right. That's it for this video. If you are following along with our psychiatric mental health nursing video playlist, in my next video, I will be covering eating disorders. So definitely stay tuned for that. Take care and good luck with studying.