– Article published on ninemsn.com.au (click here) –
Desiring a golden glow is hardly unusual, but doctors say they are increasingly seeing people who have crossed the line to the point of addiction.
Usually the result of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) or obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), tanning addicts ignore skin cancer warnings to excessively tan, and US researchers are now considering whether tanning should be classified as an addiction.
Tanning salons using sunbeds have been largely banned in Australia due to skin cancer risks, however people with tanning addictions are reportedly the beds for home use, and excessively laying out in the sun. Others obsessively get spray tans or apply fake tan.
Dr Erin Bonar, a University of Michigan assistant professor of psychiatry and Lisham Ashrafioun, a psychology doctoral candidate from Bowling Green State University, said doctors should be aware of people tanning excessively as they are likely suffering from BDD or OCD.
People with BDD have a chronic preoccupation with a perceived defect in their appearance. They get very distressed by the characteristic they think is flawed, even if other people cannot see the problem, and they often take drastic action to alter their appearance, such as getting plastic surgery or obsessively going to solariums.
The researchers questioned 533 university students who regularly tan and found 31 percent had a tanning dependence, defined as tanning at least nine times in the past 30 days. A further 12 percent of the participants displayed problematic tanning behaviour.
The researchers then screened the students for BDD and OCD and found those who had tanning dependence were much more likely to have these conditions.
“It may be that some individuals in our sample engage in excessive tanning because of obsessive thoughts about it, or the compulsion to tan, or because tanning is a strategy for relaxation to decrease OCD symptoms,” Ashrafioun said.
Now they’re investigating whether tanning could be characterised as an addiction.
“While more research is needed regarding the idea of tanning as an addiction, this study suggests that some people who tan also experience mental health symptoms that warrant further assessment,” Bonar said.
“Although tanning behaviour could be separate and distinct from these concerns, it’s possible that the symptoms of OCD or BDD are contributing to the tanning in some way.”
Crossing the line to addiction
Dr Ben Buchanan, an expert in BDD from the Victorian Counselling and Psychological Services, told ninemsn that people with BDD and OCD often take a behaviour that’s benign in small amounts to excessive levels.
“When they recognise that tanning is a thing that they like, they start doing it more and more. Someone without these psychological problems might tan a little in moderation, but in BDD, this positive association between having a tan can become out of control,” he said.
“Studies have shown that people who excessively tan are not as happy. One of the theories is that the heat of tanning at the beach or in a solarium reduces the sympathetic nervous system, which slows breathing, slows the heart rate and gives people a sense of relaxation.”
Dr Buchanan said that some sufferers purchase tanning drugs off the black market to keep their skin brown.
“They haven’t been approved by the Therapeutic Drugs Administration and most are in early stages of clinical trials, so they’re not a good idea to take,” he said.
Dr Buchanan said the challenge is helping people with these conditions change their behaviour.
“For most people, we have had to ‘unlearn’ that tanning is healthy and is a great thing to do, via education and media campaigns,” he said.
“For people with OCD and BDD, the unlearning process is disrupted because there is reduced connectivity in the frontal regions of the brain that are responsible for learning and unlearning.”
Ashrafioun said doctors need to be aware of signs of compulsive tanning.
“Most people know there are harms, but they continue to do it,” she said.
“We need to be more focused on intervention than just telling people it’s bad for them.”
The study will be published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology later this year.
