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.
They pull because it makes them feel better or even good. Often, they wait until they are alone before they start pulling. This is called focused trichotillomania.
Trichotillomania is a mental health condition that usually begins in childhood. If you start to see signs that your child is pulling their hair out or experiencing unexplained hair loss, it's a good idea to seek advice from a doctor as soon as possible. Treatment is much more effective when started early.
While people on the autistic spectrum often have comorbid trichotillomania and other BFRBs, the reverse correlation does not appear to hold true, and no scientific evidence could be found indicating that autism causes trichotillomania.
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.
Background: Individuals with trichotillomania (TTM), a disorder characterized by repetitive pulling out of one's own hair, often have co-occurring ADHD, but little is known about this comorbidity. Additionally, there have been intimations in the literature that treatment of ADHD with stimulants may worsen TTM symptoms.
For most children, hair-pulling is a time-limited habit that they grow out of, though for others it can become a more fixed habit and, in these situations, it can be diagnosed as trichotillomania, which is grouped as an obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in mental health manuals.
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.
Age. Trichotillomania usually develops just before or during the early teens — most often between the ages of 10 and 13 years — and it's often a lifelong problem. Infants also can be prone to hair pulling, but this is usually mild and goes away on its own without treatment.
Causes of trichotillomania
your way of dealing with stress or anxiety. a chemical imbalance in the brain, similar to obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) changes in hormone levels during puberty.
Background. Trichotillomania appears to be a fairly common disorder, with high rates of co-occurring anxiety disorders. Many individuals with trichotillomania also report that pulling worsens during periods of increased anxiety.
It's common for kids and adults to pick at their skin or play with their hair, but in some cases, it can become a concerning habit, causing distress or infection. As many as 1 in 20 people pick at their skin enough to be diagnosed with excoriation disorder, according to the International OCD Foundation.
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).
Trichotillomania is on the obsessive-compulsive spectrum, which means that it shares many symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), such as compulsive counting, checking, or washing.
Vitamin D deficiency has been correlated with non-scarring alopecia including alopecia areata or female pattern hair loss. It was theorized that hair loss secondary to vitamin D deficiency in patients susceptible to trichotillomania may exacerbate this obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Trichotillomania has also been linked to impulsive behavior and sensation seeking, which are both often present in substance use disorders. Trichotillomania itself has been considered a form of addiction, as those with trichotillomania may experience withdrawal or difficulty stopping hair-pulling behaviors.
Other imaging studies of trichotillomania reported reduced gray matter in the left inferior frontal gyrus23 and reduced cerebellar volumes. More recently, whole-brain analysis identified increased gray matter densities in the left caudate/putamen, bilateral cingulate, and right frontal cortices.
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.
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.
Be careful to not minimize or dismiss their feelings or tell them why they are “wrong”. Their feelings are very real for them, even if you don't understand them. Don't scold or punish them for pulling. The urges are beyond what they can control, and they don't do it for attention or defiance.
It is also important to make the distinction that trichotillomania is not a sensory processing disorder, but rather that the presence of a sensory processing disorder may precipitate the onset of trich.
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.
Trichotillomania and skin picking disorder are characterized, respectively, by recurrent pulling and picking, resulting in hair loss or skin excoriations, as well as functional impairment or distress [1].
Trichotillomania has been found to be associated with mood disorders, particularly bipolar disorder. Trichotillomania has shared similarities with bipolar disorder by virtue of phenomenology, co-morbidity, and psychopharmacologic observations.