Comparison of maladaptive personality traits and mental health in cosmetic surgery applicants and control group

Cosmetic surgeries have been very common and popular in recent decades. Personality traits and mental health could affect people`s motivations of doing cosmetic surgery as a psychological pattern. The aim of this study was to compare maladaptive personality traits and mental health between cosmetic surgery applicants and control group. In this descriptive-comparative study, 45 applicants for rhinoplasty and filler injections, who were selected by available sampling method, answered to DSM-5 Self-Rated Level 1 Cross-Cutting Symptom Measure and the personality inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5). Forty five nonapplicants matched with applicants with age, sex and education were also included as a control group . They answered to the same questionnaires too. The data were analyzed by "multivariate analysis of variance" (MANOVA). Rhinoplasty applicants were not significantly different from nonapplicants neither in maladaptive personality traits nor mental health. But applicants for gel injections were significantly different from control group in detachment (mean differences = - 0.36, P<0.05) , depression
(-0.91, P<0.01), Psychosis (-0.44, P<0.05) and substance abuse (-0.57, P<0.05). Plastic surgeons and cosmetic professionals must reconsider applicant`s personality and mental health. Comprehensive psychological assessments must be done, specially for gel injection applicants before any action for surgery.