TY - JOUR
T1 - Paralyzed by desire: A new type of body integrity identity disorder
AU - Giummarra, Melita
AU - Bradshaw, John
AU - Hilti, Leonie
AU - Nicholls, Michael
AU - Brugger, Peter
PY - 2012/3
Y1 - 2012/3
N2 - Background: Body incongruity in body integrity identity disorder (BIID) manifests in the desire to have a healthy limb amputated. We describe a variant of the disorder: the desire to become paralyzed (paralysis-BIID). Method: Sixteen otherwise healthy participants, recruited through Internet-based forums, websites, or word of mouth, completed questionnaires about details of their desire and accompanying symptoms. Results: Onset of the desire for paralysis typically preceded puberty. All participants indicated a specific level for desired spinal cord injury. All participants simulated paralysis through mental imagery or physical pretending, and 9 (56%) reported erotic interest in paraplegia and/or disability. Our key new finding was that 37.5% of paralysis-BIID participants were women, compared with 4.4% women in a sample of 68 individuals with amputation-BIID. Conclusions: BIID reflects a disunity between self and body, usually with a prominent sexual component. Sex-related differences are emerging: unlike men, a higher proportion of women desire paralysis than desire amputation, and, while men typically seek unilateral amputation, women typically seek bilateral amputation. We propose that these sex-related differences in BIID manifestation may relate to sex differences in cerebral lateralization, or to disruption of representation and/or processing of bodyrelated information in right-hemisphere frontoparietal networks.
AB - Background: Body incongruity in body integrity identity disorder (BIID) manifests in the desire to have a healthy limb amputated. We describe a variant of the disorder: the desire to become paralyzed (paralysis-BIID). Method: Sixteen otherwise healthy participants, recruited through Internet-based forums, websites, or word of mouth, completed questionnaires about details of their desire and accompanying symptoms. Results: Onset of the desire for paralysis typically preceded puberty. All participants indicated a specific level for desired spinal cord injury. All participants simulated paralysis through mental imagery or physical pretending, and 9 (56%) reported erotic interest in paraplegia and/or disability. Our key new finding was that 37.5% of paralysis-BIID participants were women, compared with 4.4% women in a sample of 68 individuals with amputation-BIID. Conclusions: BIID reflects a disunity between self and body, usually with a prominent sexual component. Sex-related differences are emerging: unlike men, a higher proportion of women desire paralysis than desire amputation, and, while men typically seek unilateral amputation, women typically seek bilateral amputation. We propose that these sex-related differences in BIID manifestation may relate to sex differences in cerebral lateralization, or to disruption of representation and/or processing of bodyrelated information in right-hemisphere frontoparietal networks.
KW - Body integrity identity disorder
KW - Laterality
KW - Paraphilia
KW - Paraplegia
KW - Sex differences
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84860790734&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1097/WNN.0b013e318249865a
DO - 10.1097/WNN.0b013e318249865a
M3 - Article
SN - 1543-3633
VL - 25
SP - 34
EP - 41
JO - Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology
JF - Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology
IS - 1
ER -