The efficacy of schema therapy on perfectionism, body shame and symptoms of body dysmorphic disorder in women seeking cosmetic surgery

Background: The escalating importance of physical attractiveness, concerns regarding body image, and fear of bodily appearance can significantly influence the decision to undergo cosmetic surgery. While the efficacy of various interventions on variables such as body shame and signs of body dysmorphic disorder has been examined, the effectiveness of schema therapy has not received sufficient attention from researchers. Therefore, it is imperative to investigate the impact of this intervention on improving the psychological status of individuals seeking cosmetic surgery. Aims: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of schema therapy on perfectionism, body shame and symptoms of body dysmorphic disorder in women seeking cosmetic surgery. Methods: This study employed a semi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a two-month follow-up period. The statistical population included all women seeking cosmetic surgery at the Fatemeh Zahra Beauty Clinic in Tehran during the first 9 months of 2021. Among them, 30 participants were selected based on the study's inclusion criteria and randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group. The experimental group received schema therapy sessions (Yang et al., 2006) for ten 90-minute sessions. All participants were evaluated using multidimensional measures of perfectionism (Hewitt & Flett, 1991), body image shame (Davard et al., 2014), and fear of physical deformity (Littleton et al., 2005). Data were analyzed using SPSS-24 software and multivariate analysis of variance with repeated measures. Results: The results indicated the effectiveness of schema therapy on reducing perfectionism, body shame and symptoms of body dysmorphic disorder (p< 0.05). Also, the results related to the interaction effect between time and group show that this effect is significant in all variables (p< 0.05). Therefore, there is interaction between different levels of time and groups. Conclusion: Considering to the effectiveness of schema therapy it is suggested to focus on this therapy as one of the auxiliary, supportive and rehabilitation therapy along with drug treatment in reducing the consequences of perfectionism, body shame and the symptoms of dysmorphic disorder.