Effectiveness of multimodal treatment for young people with body dysmorphic disorder in two specialist clinics

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) typically originates in adolescence and is associated with considerable adversity. Evidence-based treatments exist but research on clinical outcomes in naturalistic settings is extremely scarce. We evaluated the short- and long-term outcomes of a large cohort of adolescents with BDD receiving specialist multimodal treatment and examined predictors of symptom improvement. We followed 140 young people (age range 10-18) with a diagnosis of BDD treated at two national and specialist outpatient clinics in Stockholm, Sweden (n=96) and London, England (n=44), between January 2015 and April 2021. Participants received multimodal treatment consisting of cognitive behaviour therapy and, in 72% of cases, medication (primarily selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors). Data were collected at baseline, post-treatment, and 3, 6, and 12 months after treatment. The primary outcome measure was the clinician-rated Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale Modified for BDD, Adolescent version (BDD-YBOCS-A). Secondary outcomes included self-reported measures of BDD symptoms, depressive symptoms, and global functioning. Mixed-effects regression models showed that BDD-YBOCS-A scores decreased significantly from baseline to post-treatment (coefficient [95% confidence interval]=-16.33 [-17.90 to -14.76], p<0.001; within-group effect size (Cohen’s d)=2.08 (95% confidence interval, 1.81 to 2.35). At the end of the treatment, 79% of the participants were classified as responders and 59% as full or partial remitters. BDD symptoms continued to improve throughout the follow-up. Improvement was also seen on all secondary outcome measures. Linear regression models identified baseline BDD symptom severity as a predictor of treatment outcome at post-treatment, but no consistent predictors were found at the 12-month follow-up. To conclude, multimodal treatment for adolescent BDD is effective in both the short- and long-term when provided flexibly within a specialist setting. Considering the high personal and societal costs of BDD, specialist care should be made more widely available

Reliability of AMH in Serum after Long-term Storage at -80°C and an Extended Thawing Episode

Background: Measurement of anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) is a valuable clinical tool for evaluating ovarian function. The present study aims to evaluate the reliability of AMH measurements obtained from samples kept for long-term storage with or without intermittent thawing.Methods and findings: Serum samples from 35 young female cancer patients were prospectively collected and stored at -80°C from 2007 until 2010. In 2011, AMH was analyzed with the DSL assay. During storage, the samples were exposed to a freezer error in 2013 that resulted in their being thawed up to 11°C for a maximum of 21 days and then refrozen. In 2014, the same samples (new aliquots) were analyzed with the Ansh-AMH assay. To test the reliability of the results from 2014, we conducted a thawing experiment on serum samples from 10 randomly selected females and compared the Ansh-AMH results for samples stored in a freezer with aliquots from the same samples that were stored at 11°C for 1, 3, 7, 14, and 21 days, respectively. Average AMH levels were 1.6 times higher when assayed with the Ansh-AMH compared with the DSL-AMH, which is in line with reported agreement between these types of assays. The same difference between the assays was found in samples that differed two years in storage time. The Ansh-AMH levels from ten serum samples without long-term storage were not influenced by exposure to 11°C for up to 21 days.Conclusions: The results indicate that long-term storage at -80°C and episodes of thawing have little impact on AMH levels analyzed with current methods. These data are reassuring and enable longitudinal studies to be planned that will analyze all collected serum samples simultaneously

Severe gonadotoxic insult manifests early in young girls treated for Ewing sarcoma

We prospectively investigated anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) as a measure of ovarian insult in young females during and after treatment for Wilms tumor (WT), osteosarcoma (OS), and Ewing sarcoma (ES). Twenty-one female childhood cancer patients, with a mean age of 7.9 years (range 0.6-17), entered the study. Levels of AMH, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), and luteinizing hormone were monitored at diagnosis and every 3 to 4 months during, and regularly for a mean of 2.6 years after treatment. A profound decline in AMH was seen in the majority of the 21 study patients 3 to 4 months after the beginning of treatment, the exception being patients with WT, of whom 60% showed no such decline. During the remaining treatment, all patients except those with WT not treated with whole abdominal radiotherapy or stem cell transplantation (SCT) had AMH below detection limit. After completion of treatment, patients with OS and WT (without whole abdominal radiotherapy and SCT) recovered in AMH and had FSH in the normal range. In contrast, ES patients showed no AMH recovery and highly fluctuating FSH in the first years of follow-up, except for the 2 youngest patients, who had a late, slow AMH recovery. In conclusion, young female ES patients already showed signs of severe ovarian dysfunction during the first years after cancer treatment similar to patients treated with SCT and abdominal radiotherapy, in contrast to females with WT and OS. Fertility counseling and information concerning fertility preservation procedures should be considered before starting to treat young females with ES