[3] The quest to seemingly fix one's body consumes inordinate time, attention, and resources, as on exercise routines, dietary regimens, and nutritional supplementation, while use of anabolic steroids is also common.
[1] Researchers believe that muscle dysmorphia's incidence is rising, partly due to the recent cultural emphasis on muscular male bodies.
[9] Further clinical features identified include excessive conduct of efforts to increase muscularity, activities such as dietary restriction, overtraining, and injection of growth-enhancing drugs.
[10] Persons experiencing muscle dysmorphia generally spend over three hours daily pondering increased muscularity, and may feel unable to limit weightlifting.
[11] Those suffering from the disorder closely monitor their body and may wear multiple clothing layers to make it appear larger.
Versus the general population, persons manifesting muscle dysmorphia are more likely to have experienced or observed traumatic events like sexual assault or domestic violence,[7][15] or to have sustained adolescent bullying and ridicule for actual or perceived deficiencies such as smallness, weakness, poor athleticism, or intellectual inferiority.
[24] In college-aged men, a strong predictor of a muscularity quest is internalization of the idealized male bodies depicted in media.
[3] Involvement in sports where size, strength, or weight, whether higher or lower, imply competitive advantage associates with muscle dysmorphia.
[3] Scientific research on treatment of muscle dysmorphia is limited, the evidence largely in case reports and anecdotes,[7] and no specific protocols have been validated.
[7] Although muscle dysmorphia was initially viewed as anorexia nervosa's inverse—questing to be large and muscular instead of small and thin[39]—later researchers fit the subjective experience to body dysmorphic disorder.
[9] Muscle dysmorphia is absent from the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems' present edition, the tenth, published in 1992.