Are Anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms Related to Muscle Dysmorphia?

Abstract

The present study examines how muscle dysmorphia (MD), a clinically significant preoccupation that one’s body is inadequately muscular, relates to trait anxiety and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. 97 college-age men completed the MD Inventory, the Drive for Muscularity Scale, the Male Body Attitudes Scale, the Social Physique Anxiety Scale, the trait scale of the Speilberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory , and an abbreviated version of the Yale Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale. Bivariate correlation analyses revealed that trait anxiety and obsessivecompulsive symptoms demonstrated strong relationships with both social physique anxiety and overall MD symptomology. Path analysis indicated that anxiety- related variables accounted for 77 percent of the variance in MD symptoms. The findings lend support to the assertion that MD should be placed within the obsessive- compulsive spectrum of disorders.