Body Integrity Identity Disorder: Development and Evaluation of an Inventory for the Assessment of the Severity

Abstract

Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID), the wish of subjects for an amputation of otherwise healthy limbs, is a rare disturbance. Until now, BIID was seen as a symptom affecting a group of people suffering from an urging desire for amputation. But while some of the BIID-affected people only have a weak wish for an amputation others show severe symptoms. The aim of this work was the development of a psychological test to measure the severity of the wish for amputation or palsy in BIID afflicted subjects. Additionally, we analyzed correlation with demographic data. We developed a survey in English and German language from which three pairs of similar items were created for a test of reliability. 45 people affected by BIID answered this survey (38 men, 7 women, age 42.6 ±12.4). After controlling for robustness, a normal distribution of the "BIID-severity" could be detected and the subjects were divided into 5 groups (<2 SD: very low, -2 to -1 SD: light, -1 to +1 SD: moderate, +1 to +2 SD: heavy, > +2 SD: very heavy BIID). The severity of BIID sufferers was not more pronounced in older than in younger subjects, but BIID affects more men than women and the first manifestation of BIID occurs predominantly in childhood.

Pins & Needles: Towards Limb Disownership in Augmented Reality

“…Applying the ReHI in individuals with Xenomelia may recreate the reported feeling of disownership -or, by inducing disownership over an unwanted limb -create a cessation in the dysphoric feeling of overcompleteness. Similar to the pretend behaviour exercised by these individuals (First, 2005;L. Fischer, 2015), this may offer a temporary relief, if not a treatment.…”

Experimentally induced limb-disownership in mixed reality

“…Applying the ReHI in individuals with Xenomelia may recreate the reported feeling of disownershipor, by inducing disownership over an unwanted limbcreate a cessation in the dysphoric feeling of over-completeness. Similar to the pretending behaviour exercised by these individuals (First, 2005;L. Fischer, 2015), this may offer a temporary relief, if not a treatment.…”

Xenomelia and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Similarities and Differences

“…The results of the BIID screening instrument for severity and intensity from Fischer were transformed into arithmetic means which were classified in accordance with the standard values developed by Fischer [11,12]. The sample of this study showed variations from very low up to medium extents of severity of Xenomelia.…”

“…The Hamburg Compulsive Inventory (short form; originally named: "Hamburger Zwangsinventar", [31]), the Body Integrity Identity disorder screening instrument for severity and intensity from M. Fischer [11,12]. Because none of the existing obsessive-compulsive screening instruments captures the specific typical compulsive behaviour of Xenomelia affected people, it was necessary to develop an own questionnaire named "Questionnaire for detecting non-specific compulsive behavior" ("Fragebogen zur Erfassung unspezifischen zwanghaften Verhaltens; FzEuzV").…”

“…The BIID screening instrument for severity and intensity [11,12] was used in this study to confirm the diagnosis of Xenomelia (BIID) and to classify the severity of the disorder. According to Mrs. Fischer, the screening instrument has a Cronbach's Alpha of .929 and reliability scores higher than 0.7 [11].…”