Supportive Online Therapy Condition

A supportive therapy condition was chosen as the control condition, as this has proven to be feasible in BDD in adults (33) and in children and adolescents with depression or anxiety symptoms (38, 39). In the SOT condition, patients can read psychoeducational material on BDD for 12 weeks (symptoms, prevalence, development, maintenance, therapy options, case examples) that is identical to the psychoeducational reading material from the first module of the ImaginYouth condition, but without exercises to facilitate transfer to the patient's individual case or the identification of intervention targets. Through the program's messaging function, the control patients are contacted weekly (repeated in case of non-responding) by the study therapist. In this communication, the therapist asks about their current well-being as well as their experiences, thoughts, and emotions regarding BDD symptoms and how these influence participants' lives if participants do not bring up their own questions or concerns.