A Canadian man has been diagnosed with a rare mental disorder known as Body Identity Integrity Disorder (BIID), wherein the patient believes that a specific body part does not belong to them.
Reports from the media reveal that a resident of Quebec, Canada, has been experiencing BIID, leading him to request the amputation of his fourth and fifth fingers on his left hand. He firmly believes that these fingers are not part of his body.
Dr. Nadia Nadeau, from the Department of Psychiatry at Université Laval in Quebec, published a case report detailing the patient’s lifelong struggle with the belief that his last two left-hand fingers were missing, causing him significant distress, irritability, and nightmares.
Despite knowing the potential social, identity, and health repercussions, the patient harbored fantasies of self-amputation but kept his feelings hidden due to embarrassment.
Various treatments, including cognitive behavioral therapy, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and exposure therapy, were attempted but proved ineffective in alleviating the disorder. Brain imaging yielded normal results, leading doctors to ultimately proceed with the patient’s desired amputation as the only perceived solution.
