Last week the Psych Central newsroom had a story about self-esteem and a reduced need for antidepressant medication following plastic surgery. The sample was primarily middle aged women who received non-essential cosmetic surgery such as face lifts and breat augmentation. On the surface this …
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I absolutely agree with this, and you should always be aware of who commissions any study. I always maintain that a suitable candidate for cosmetic surgery is probably not someone who is getting depressed about their appearance.
Someone who feels that they are being ridiculed about some aspect of their appearance, or if this aspect is perhaps making them introverted or inadequate, socially, well, that’s a different matter.
There are many people who have just one surgery performed on them, and who do find that it has a permanent effect on their self-esteem. I would say that those patients who return again and again for new procedures are quite untypical of the general demographic.
A “mood” is a fleeting thing, anyway, and it’s a bit much to expect plastic surgery to create a permanent mood boost, any more than a new car, a new job, or anything else, really. Hopefully, not too many prospective cosmetic surgery patients will have been taken in by any suggestions to the contrary.