{"id":6553,"date":"2013-11-11T13:50:29","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T18:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/?p=6553"},"modified":"2013-11-12T20:05:31","modified_gmt":"2013-11-13T01:05:31","slug":"a-look-into-the-disorder-that-creates-a-desire-for-amputation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/2013\/11\/11\/a-look-into-the-disorder-that-creates-a-desire-for-amputation\/","title":{"rendered":"A Look Into the Disorder that Creates a Desire for Amputation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Imagine for a second feeling \u201covercomplete.\u201d You have all of your limbs, and they are perfectly healthy. Yet, you feel as though your leg doesn\u2019t belong to you. It shouldn\u2019t be there, and you know it needs to go. \u00a0The only way you can feel \u201cwhole\u201d again is through its removal. \u00a0You might be wondering why anyone would want to get rid of a perfectly healthy limb. Well, this phenomenon is the result of apotemnophilia, or Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID), a condition characterized \u201cby the intense and long-standing desire for the amputation of a specific limb.\u201d Most know exactly where they want the line of amputation to be, and this place stays fairly constant as time passes. Since it is rare for a surgeon to agree to amputate a healthy limb, many suffering from this condition will unfortunately resort to attempting the amputation themselves. \u00a0In the past, this rare disorder was thought to be only psychological, and that perhaps the yearning for amputation was simply a way of seeking attention. However, in recent years, studies have shown otherwise.<\/p>\n

\"Image\"
Amputation makes the patient feel "whole."<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One study performed by David Brang, Paul D. McGeoch and Vilayanur S. Ramachandran suggests that apotemnophilia is indeed a neurological disorder.\u00a0 The otherwise healthy subjects of the study went through a series of blind skin conductance response tests where they were pinpricked above and below the line where the amputation was. The responses to the pinpricking below the line were much greater than those above it.\u00a0 The resulting differences found suggest some abnormalities with the somatosensory input to the body part in question.<\/p>\n

They suspect the disorder to be a consequence of damage to the right parietal lobe, which is responsible for processing sensory input from certain areas and forming our sense of body image. It could be the dysfunction within the right parietal lobe, specifically the right superior parietal lobe, causing irregular sympathetic output. The discrepancy between the signals and body image can lead to the feeling that a certain limb doesn\u2019t belong and should be removed in order to feel \u201ccomplete.\u201d In addition, most patients have dealt with these feelings since childhood suggesting that the dysfunction is congenital.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In other studies, patients who did undergo surgery to remove part of a limb reported a significantly higher quality of life because of the resulting feeling of \u201ccompleteness\u201d after their imputation, despite subsequent disabilities. \u00a0In order to cope with their desires for amputation, some patients who can\u2019t get the surgery use prosthetics, wheelchairs, or canes to create the feeling that they have an amputated limb.<\/p>\n

The research on the topic is not yet conclusive, and there are still several unanswered questions. However, this bizarre disorder is worth further investigation.\u00a0 The more insight neurologists gain over apotemnophilia, the more we learn about the way our brains process the information that is responsible for our body image and the way we perceive ourselves, something that as we know, plays a large role in our society.<\/p>\n

– Anna Gaziano<\/p>\n

Sources<\/p>\n

Apotemnophilia: a neurological disorder<\/a> – Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuropsychology<\/p>\n

Body Integrity Identity Disorder<\/a> – PLOS one<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine for a second feeling \u201covercomplete.\u201d You have all of your limbs, and they are perfectly healthy. Yet, you feel as though your leg doesn\u2019t belong to you. It shouldn\u2019t be there, and you know it needs to go. \u00a0The only way you can feel \u201cwhole\u201d again is through its removal. \u00a0You might be wondering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7897,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[587],"tags":[1237,1245,1236,988],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6553"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7897"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6553"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6579,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6553\/revisions\/6579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}