Trichotillomania is a condition where people feel the need to pull out their hair. It is a mental health disorder that usually starts in childhood or adolescence.
Trichotillomania. This condition is an impulse control disorder caused by anxiety or stress. Often called “hair-pulling disorder,” people with trichotillomania have the irresistible urge to pull out their own hair, eyelashes or eyebrows. The area of hair loss is usually asymmetric and follows an irregular pattern.
Trichotillomania, also known as trich, is when someone cannot resist the urge to pull out their hair. They may pull out the hair on their head or in other places, such as their eyebrows or eyelashes. Trich is more common in teenagers and young adults.
Trichotillomania (often abbreviated as TTM) is a mental health disorder where a person compulsively pulls out or breaks their own hair. This condition falls under the classification of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
The onset of this disorder may be preceded or accompanied by various emotional states, such as feelings of anxiety or boredom. A stressful event such as abuse, family conflict, or death may also trigger trichotillomania.
In seeking sensory stimulation or sensory soothing, there is a tendency to target sites where there are many nerve endings such as the hands, feet, mouth and scalp. Therefore behaviours such as hair pulling, skin picking, and nail biting are commonly seen in people with autism and SPD.
Trichotillomania is an independent diagnosis but is highly comorbid, meaning it frequently occurs with other conditions. Anxiety and depression are the most common comorbidities, followed by ADHD.
Some have argued that hair pulling in trichotillomania (TTM) is triggered by traumatic events, but reliable evidence linking trauma to TTM is limited. However, research has shown that hair pulling is associated with emotion regulation, suggesting a connection between negative affect and TTM.
There is no cure for this disorder, but it can be successfully managed. Therapy by a qualified body-focused repetitive behavior practitioner would be the ideal method to deal with trichotillomania.
It's important to note that symptoms may come and go over a lifetime, but trichotillomania – and other compulsions—rarely just go away forever without treatment. There's no shame in seeking treatment or in changing treatments when the need arises. Ongoing treatment may have the best outcome.
Results. SSRIs and clomipramine are considered first-line in TTM. In addition, family members of TTM patients are often affected by obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders. Other drugs used in the treatment of TTM are lamotrigine, olanzapine, N-Acetylcysteine, inositol, and naltrexone.
Grammy-award winner Justin Timberlake has been believed to have trichotillomania due to his admitted OCD. On the David Letterman show Justin discussed his struggle with OCD and ADD (attention deficit disorder) and how it affects his life in different ways, such as difficulty in completing daily tasks.
Approximately 1 in 50 people experience trichotillomania in their lifetime.
If untreated, trichotillomania is a chronic illness that often results in substantial psychosocial dysfunction, and that can, in rare cases, lead to life-threatening medical problems.
Therapy can help people overcome trichotillomania. The most widely used type of therapy is called habit-reversal training (HRT). It's a type of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). In this therapy, people meet with a therapist to learn skills to help them reverse the hair pulling habit.
Our study largely confirmed the results of CA-TIP, an Internet-based study that examined the clinical characteristics of children with TTM. The average age of onset in our sample was 9.3 ± 2.6 years, which is consistent with 8.8 ± 3.2 age of onset reported in a previous behavioral therapy trial of pediatric TTM.
So, is trichotillomania inherited? Yes, it can be, but other factors also contribute to the condition. As research and studies continue, understanding of the causes of trichotillomania and other mental health disorders will increase and improve prevention and treatment options.
Are there certain things that make Trichotillomania worse? Stress can cause hair pulling to get worse. Worries about a pending exam, financial problems, relationships, problems at work, etc. can also make the pulling worse.
It is commonly seen in depression and many other psychiatric disorders. Trichotillomania rarely occurs as a co morbid condition in patients with schizophrenia. Even rarer is recurrent hair pulling in response to psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia.
If you can't stop pulling out your hair or you feel embarrassed or ashamed by your appearance as a result of your hair pulling, talk to your doctor. Trichotillomania is not just a bad habit, it's a mental health disorder, and it's unlikely to get better without treatment.
Trichotillomania itself has been considered a form of addiction, as those with trichotillomania may experience withdrawal or difficulty stopping hair-pulling behaviors.
Trichotillomania can be either a simple habit, an angry protest or a sign that your child is anxious or under stress. If your child has only started pulling his hair out at school age, there may have been other causes for the problem.
The current treatment of choice is called cognitive behavior therapy, an approach that hones in on problematic thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Some of the most successful approaches train patients to recognize what prompts them to pull or pick and replace it with something else, like balling hands into fists.
In people with trichotillomania, brain imaging studies have shown abnormalities in activity in certain regions of the brain, including areas involved in regulating impulses and habits, emotional processing, and reward processing. Neuroimaging research also points to abnormal activity in those with OCD.