Patients suffering from Body Integrity Dysphoria (BID) desire to become disabled, arising from a mismatch between the desired body and the physical body. We focus here on the most common variant, characterised by the desire for amputation of a healthy limb. In most reported cases amputation of the rejected limb entirely alleviates the distress of the condition and engenders substantial improvement in quality of life. Since BID can lead to life-long suffering, it is essential to identify an effective form of treatment that causes the least amount of alteration to the person’s anatomical structure and functionality. Treatment methods involving medications, psychotherapy and vestibular stimulation have proven largely ineffective. In this hypothesis article, we briefly discuss the characteristics, aetiology, and current treatment options available for BID before highlighting the need for new, theory driven approaches. Drawing on recent findings relating to functional and structural brain correlates of BID, we introduce the idea of Brain Computer Interface (BCI)/neurofeedback approaches to target altered patterns of brain activity, promote re-ownership of the limb and/or attenuate stress and negativity associated with the altered body representation.

中文翻译：

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脑机接口能否成为治疗身体完整性焦虑症的新方法？


患有身体完整性不安（BID）的患者由于期望的身体与实际身体不匹配而渴望成为残疾。我们在这里关注最常见的变体，其特点是希望截肢健康的肢体。在大多数报告的病例中，截肢被排斥的肢体完全减轻了病情的痛苦，并显着改善了生活质量。由于 BID 可能导致终生痛苦，因此有必要找到一种有效的治疗方式，对人的解剖结构和功能造成最小程度的改变。事实证明，涉及药物、心理治疗和前庭刺激的治疗方法基本上无效。在这篇假设文章中，我们简要讨论了 BID 的特征、病因和当前可用的治疗方案，然后强调对新的理论驱动方法的需求。利用与 BID 的功能和结构大脑相关性相关的最新发现，我们引入了脑机接口 (BCI)/神经反馈方法的理念，以改变大脑活动模式，促进肢体的重新所有权和/或减轻压力和消极性与改变的身体表征有关。