In a bizarre case, a 20-year-old Quebec man asked the doctors to amputate his two healthy fingers from his left hand and the doctors amputated his fingers to treat his body integrity identity disorder.
According to a clinical case report that was published by Wiley Online Library, the 20-year-old Quebec patient had been experiencing profound distress and incessant thoughts about the fourth and fifth fingers on his left hand. The patient reported that since childhood he had experienced a traumatizing sensation that his fingers didn't belong to his body and it led to pain, irritability, impaired dexterity, and nightmares of his fingers rotting or burning.
Dr. Nadia Nadeau, who treated the patient, said that the man was diagnosed with body integrity identity disorder.
According to the National Library of Medicine, Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID) is described as an extremely rare phenomenon of persons who desire the amputation of one or more healthy limbs or who desire paralysis.
The clinical case report also read that in select cases of body integrity identity disorder or body integrity dysphoria where non-invasive treatments prove ineffective and the patient's distress is substantial, elective amputation may serve as a viable and highly satisfying intervention, aligning the individual’s physical self with their perceived identity.
The brain imaging of the patient was normal and he was also provided with non-invasive treatments including cognitive behavioral therapy, exposure therapy, antidepressants, and antipsychotics. However, all the treatments failed to treat his condition.
According to the report, deemed to have the ability to ask for amputation, the patient was assigned to orthopedics and stopped his psychotropic medication in a collective accord with the treating psychiatrist. Six months later, the man experienced an elective amputation procedure which was performed by an orthopedic surgeon at his local hospital.
The doctor said that, after the surgery, the man’s nightmares and emotional distress stopped immediately and he had positive life plans, reduced anger, and enhanced well-being with family and at work and he expressed no regrets. The man is now living a life free from dreadful obsession about his fingers and his symptoms related to body integrity identity disorder are settled. The amputation enabled him to live in alignment with his perceived identity, the doctor continued.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, the BIID can affect any part of the body. Mostly it includes the leg, arm, finger, toe, eye, ear, and teeth.
The symptoms of BIID include a strong desire to be physically disabled or experience life without a body part, behaving like you have a disability even though you don't have a disability, and intense feelings or discomfort that a healthy part of the body doesn't belong to you or isn't acceptable for your body and self-harm behaviors. The treatment of this condition includes medications to treat depression and anxiety, cognitive behavioral therapy, wearing a prosthetic or using a wheelchair, and using virtual reality to mimic living without a body part.
References:
1. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/body-integrity-identity-disorder-biid
2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19132621/#:~:text=The%20term%20body%20integrity%20identity,transection%20of%20their%20spinal%20cord.
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Lavanya Beeraboina/MSM)
