Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, Education and Research, April-June 2013;47(2):77-82 77 Muscle Dysmorphia and Personality Trait: A Significant Link in Bodybuilders JPMER INVITED ARTICLE Muscle Dysmorphia and Personality Trait: A Significant Link in Bodybuilders Jaspal Singh Sandhu, Sai Kishore, Shweta Shenoy, Harwinder Singh Randhawa ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to test for significant link between personality trait and muscle dysmorphia in bodybuilders. A total of 212 bodybuilders filled the muscle dysmorphia inventory of which 44.3% (n = 94) were found to be muscle dysmorphic. Their personality traits assessed using eysenck personality profiler in the vienna testing system machine revealed 65% of muscle dysmorphic bodybuilders being predominantly oriented toward extroversion type of personality. Further statistical analysis revealed, the significance between the muscle dysmorphia inventory and the personality traits and its results are discussed. Estimating the prevalence and categorizing based on personality has rather opened a new gateway to identify such vulnerable men who are susceptible to their own drive for muscularity. Keywords: Muscle dysmorphia, Personality, Bodybuilders. How to cite this article: Sandhu JS, Kishore S, Shenoy S, Randhawa HS. Muscle Dysmorphia and Personality Trait: A Significant Link in Bodybuilders. J Postgrad Med Edu Res 2013; 47(2):77-82. Source of support: Nil Conflict of interest: None declared INTRODUCTION Men obsessed with a drive for muscularity or in better word an ideal body image, in which bodybuilders being more susceptible 1,2 are often at risk for developing body dysmorphic disorders (BDD) like muscle dysmorphia (MD). Such vulnerable men passionate with their body and image think of being superman like, invincible, 3 sometimes even unattractive or monstrous. 4 MD also known as reverse anorexia nervosa, 5 is characterized by a chronic preoccupation that one is insufficiently muscular (or sometimes, especially in the case of women, both muscular and lean). 6 The body building populations were reported to be majorly affected by this BDD. 4-6 These are the men who obviously have the desire to look more muscular than the others thriving hard to achieve a Herculean physique. A compulsive need to maintain a strict workout and diet schedule 7 makes these men to miss important social or family events, stick to a strict exercise schedule, hide their physique from others, which are considered as characteristic features of MD. 8 Also there is a preoccupation in them of not being identical as others, and of being small or not enough muscular. 9 Preoccupation defined as an extreme or excessive concern, 10 is nevertheless ascribed to social factors, where 10.5005/jp-journals-10028-1060 body image itself is a psychological phenomenon significantly affected by social factors. 11 One of the primordial social factors being the exposure to magazines and movies. 12 Films do make an impact on the mind leading to imagine a larger than life portrait, causing frequent evaluation of one’s body to gain information about size, shape or weight. 13 It is the concept of learned behavior that the media projects in viewer’s mind, 14 where the mental image drawn in the mind is harder to prevail over. Men with MD were even thought to have psychiatric conditions. 15 Further, there is an evidence of BDD being associated with Type D personality 16 which necessitates the need for personality to be assessed in the context of bodybuilders affected with MD. The main idea of this study is to test for any significance between personality trait and MD in bodybuilders. Since, various personality questionnaires have been tested on men with an obsession for muscularity, 17 we used the Eysenck’s Personality Profiler (EPP6) in the vienna testing system (VTS) machine which is based on the personality theory comprising extraversion (E), adventurousness/psychoticism (P) and emotionality/neuroticism (N), proposed by Eysenck. There are rich evidence’s about the E, P, N model of Eysenck’s personality theory. 18,19 and the pathological preoccupation developed, 6,20 yet it is important to establish a statistical data in our country. With the given popularity of the Indian films and its viewership, evidence of Indian men and their liking for films that portrays supernatural talents 21 was anticipated. Considering this Indian scenario, we hypothesized that the muscle dysmorphic bodybuilders would be more oriented toward one particular personality trait with which a significant link is possible. MATERIALS AND METHODS Participants Data’s were collected in India. A total of 212 male body- builders participated in the study, of which 149 body- builders were from the city of Amritsar, Punjab and 63 bodybuilders were from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Of these, 94 bodybuilders were found to be symptomatic to MD with an age limit of 18 to 34 years and mean age being 23.31 ± 3.64. In our study, both recreational and professional body- builders were included and all the bodybuilders were self- identified. There was no definite criteria to identify the