Trichotillomania

Introduction: Trichotillomania

Trichotillomania: A mental disorder where a person feels compelled to pull out their own hair. More detailed information about the symptoms, causes, and treatments of Trichotillomania is available below.

Symptoms of Trichotillomania

• Recurrent hair pulling
• Hair loss
• Bald patches
• Plucking of eyelashes
• Plucking of eyebrows

See full list of 6 symptoms of Trichotillomania

Home Diagnostic Testing

Home medical testing related to Trichotillomania:

• Mental Health: Home Testing:
  • Home Emotional Stress Tests

Medical Textbooks Online about Trichotillomania

Book excerpts: Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.

Wrongly Diagnosed with Trichotillomania?

• Misdiagnosis of Trichotillomania
• Underlying causes of Trichotillomania (possibly wrongly diagnosed)

Misdiagnosis and Trichotillomania

Cluster of diseases with difficult diagnosis issues: There is a well-known list of medical conditions that are all somewhat difficult to diagnose, and all can present in a variety of different severities....read more »

Undiagnosed stroke leads to misdiagnosed aphasia: BBC News UK reported on a man who had been institutionalized and treated for mental illness because he suffered from sudden inability to speak. This was initially...read more »

Alzheimer's disease over-diagnosed: The well-known disease of Alzheimer's disease is often over-diagnosed. Patients tend to assume that any memory loss or forgetulness symptom might be Alzheimer's, whereas there are many other less severe...read more »

Dementia may be a drug interaction: A common scenario in aged care is for a patient to show mental decline to dementia. Whereas this can, of course, occur due to various medical conditions, such as a stroke or Alzheimer's disease, it can...read more »

ADHD under-diagnosed in adults: Although the over-diagnoses of ADHD in children is a well-known controversy, the reverse side related to adults...read more »

Bipolar disorder misdiagosed as various conditions by primary physicians: Bipolar disorder (manic-depressive disorder) often fails to be...read more »

Eating disorders under-diagnosed in men: The typical patient with an eating disorder is female. The result is that men with eating disorders often fail to be diagnosed or have a delayed diagnosis. See ...read more »

Depression undiagnosed in teenagers: Serious bouts of depression can be undiagnosed in teenagers. The "normal" moodiness of teenagers can cause severe medical depression to be...read more »

Undiagnosed anxiety disorders related to depression: Patients with depression (see symptoms of depression) may also have undiagnosed anxiety disorders (see symptoms of anxiety disorders). Failure to diagnose these anxiety...read more »

Read more about Misdiagnosis and Trichotillomania

Causes of Trichotillomania

Read more about causes of Trichotillomania.

More information about causes of Trichotillomania:

• Trichotillomania as a symptom

Videos for Trichotillomania

Patient Surveys for Trichotillomania

• Patient Profile Survey
  Take Survey  View Results
• Survey about the symptoms of your Trichotillomania
  Take Survey  View Results

Reseach about Trichotillomania

Visit our research pages for current research about Trichotillomania treatments.

Clinical Trials for Trichotillomania

The US based website ClinicalTrials.gov lists information on both federally and privately supported clinical trials using human volunteers.

Some of the clinical trials listed on ClinicalTrials.gov for Trichotillomania include:

• N-Acetyl Cysteine in Trichotillomania - This study is currently recruiting patients (Current: 23 Nov 2006) - N-Acetyl Cysteine
• Evaluation and Follow-up of Individuals With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Related Conditions - This study is currently recruiting patients (Current: 23 Nov 2006)
• Cognitive Behavioral Treatment of Pediatric Trichotillomania - This study has been completed (Current: 23 Nov 2006)
• Olanzapine in the Treatment of Hair Pulling (Trichotillomania) - This study is currently recruiting patients (Current: 23 Nov 2006) - Olanzapine
• Genetics of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - This study is currently recruiting patients (Current: 23 Nov 2006)

See full list of 6 Clinical Trials for Trichotillomania

Statistics for Trichotillomania

• Medical statistics for Trichotillomania
• Prevalence and incidence statistics for Trichotillomania
• Death and Mortality statistics for Trichotillomania
• Society statistics for Trichotillomania

Stories from Users Related to Trichotillomania

• weird compulsion
• please help with trichotillomania
• hair loss caused by something in house
• Hair loss from roots
• Ingrown hair on groin?
• non-stop ingrown hairs and systs
• trichotillomania
• lossing hair
• ingrowing hair or an std?!
• I Pull Out My Hair Every Chance I Get
• Compulsive over-eating & Anorexia?
• Trichotillomania
• CHANTIX causes severe hair loss
• hair loss
• hair loss and tingling
• weight loss and hair loss
• Lack of Hair....
• Somethings wrong with my hair
• Hair Loss
• hair condition seba something

Related forums and stories:

• Mental Conditions (106)
  • Caterpillar Phobia
  • Am I Anorexic?
  • Antisocial personality disorder?
  • I've been depressed for some time now but...
  • I don't know what this could be
  • More user stories
• Hair Conditions (21)
  • Changes to pubic hair
  • texture change of hair
  • hair stopped growing on both legs
  • hair loss, Eye-skin Allergy, irregular period
  • Dandruff persistent and hair fall problem
  • More user stories

User Interactive Forums

Read about other experiences, ask a question about Trichotillomania, or answer someone else's question, on our message boards:

• I can not get a diagnosis. Please help.
• Tell us your medical story.
• Share your misdiagnosis story.
• What is the best treatment for this?
• See all the forums.

Definitions of Trichotillomania:

Compulsion to pull out one's hair. - (Source - Diseases Database)

An irresistible urge to pull out your own hair - (Source - WordNet 2.1)

Trichotillomania is listed as a "rare disease" by the Office of Rare Diseases (ORD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This means that Trichotillomania, or a subtype of Trichotillomania, affects less than 200,000 people in the US population.
Source - National Institutes of Health (NIH)