Comprehensive Psychiatry
Volume 51, Issue 2 , Pages 183-186 , March 2010

The prevalence of pathologic skin picking in US adults

  • Nancy J. Keuthen

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Clinic Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA. Tel.: +1 617 726 4074; fax: +1 617 643 3080.
    • ,
  • Lorrin M. Koran

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
    • ,
  • Elias Aboujaoude

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
    • ,
  • Michael D. Large

      Affiliations

    • Department of Institutional Research and Planning, Palomar College, San Marcos, CA 92069, USA
    • ,
  • Richard T. Serpe

      Affiliations

    • Department of Sociology, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA

References 

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  2. Wilhelm S, Keuthen NJ, Deckersbach T, Engelhard IM, Forker AE, Baer L, et al. Self-injurious skin picking: clinical characteristics and comorbidity. J Clin Psychiatry. 1999;60(7):454–459
  3. Neziroglu F, Rabinowitz D, Breytman A, Jacofsky M. Skin picking phenomenology and severity comparison. Prim Care Companion J Clin Psychiatry. 2008;10(4):306
  4. Flessner CA, Woods DW. Phenomenological characteristics, social problems, and the economic impact associated with chronic skin picking. Behav Modif. 2006;30(6):944–963
  5. Odlaug BL, Grant JE. Clinical characteristics and medical complications of pathologic skin picking. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2008;30(1):61–66
  6. Krupp NE. Self-caused skin ulcers. Psychosom. 1977;18:15–19
  7. Weintraub E, Robinson C, Newmeyer M. Catastrophic medical complication in psychogenic excoriation. South Med J. 2000;93(11):1099–1101
  8. O'Sullivan RL, Phillips KA, Keuthen NJ, Wilhelm S. Near-fatal skin picking from delusional body dysmorphic disorder responsive to fluvoxamine. Psychosom. 1999;40(1):79–81
  9. Kondziolka D, Hudak R. Management of obsessive-compulsive disorder–related skin picking with gamma knife radiosurgical anterior capsulotomies: a case report. J Clin Psychiatry. 2008;69(8):1337–1340
  10. American Psychiatric Association . Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders DSM-IV-TR. 4th ed (text rev). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association; 2000;
  11. Arnold LM, Auchenbach MB, McElroy SL. Psychogenic excoriation. Clinical features, proposed diagnostic criteria, epidemiology and approaches to treatment. CNS Drugs. 2001;15(5):351–359
  12. Stein DJ, Simeon D. The nosology of compulsive skin picking. J Clin Psychiatry. 1999;60(9):618–619
  13. Stein DJ, Hutt CS, Spitz JL, Hollander E. Compulsive picking and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychosom. 1993;34(2):177–181
  14. Bienvenu OJ, Samuels JF, Riddle MA, Hoehn-Saric R, Liang KY, Cullen B, et al. The relationship of obsessive-compulsive disorder to possible spectrum disorders: results from a family study. Biol Psychiatry. 2000;48(4):287–293
  15. Stein DJ, Garner JP, Keuthen NJ, Franklin ME, Walkup JT, Woods DW. Trichotillomania, stereotypic movement disorder, and related disorders. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2007;9(4):301–302
  16. Lochner C, Simeon D, Niehaus DJ, Stein DJ. Trichotillomania and skin-picking: a phenomenological comparison. Depress Anxiety. 2002;15(2):83–86
  17. Odlaug BL, Grant JE. Trichotillomania and pathologic skin picking: clinical comparison with an examination of comorbidity. Ann Clin Psychiatry. 2008;20(2):57–63
  18. Griesemer RD. Emotionally triggered disease in a dermatologic practice. Psychiatr Ann. 1978;8:407–412
  19. Gupta MA, Gupta AK, Haberman HF. The self-inflicted dermatoses: a critical review. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 1987;9(1):45–52
  20. Bohne A, Wilhelm S, Keuthen NJ, Baer L, Jenike MA. Skin picking in German students. Behav Modif. 2002;26(3):320–339
  21. Keuthen NJ, Deckersbach T, Wilhelm S, Hale E, Fraim C, Baer L, et al. Repetitive skin picking in a student population and comparison with a sample of self-injurious skin pickers. Psychosomatics. 2000;41(3):210–215
  22. Grant JE, Menard W, Phillips KA. Pathological skin picking in individuals with body dysmorphic disorder. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2006;28(6):487–493
  23. Koran LM, Faber RJ, Aboujaoude E, Large MD, Serpe RT. Estimated prevalence of compulsive buying behavior in the United States. Am J Psychiatry. 2006;163(10):1806–1812
  24. Stein DJ, Flessner CA, Franklin M, Keuthen NJ, Lochner C, Woods DW. Trichotillomania Learning Center-Scientific Advisory Board. Is trichotillomania a stereotypic movement disorder? An analysis of body-focused repetitive behaviors in people with hair-pulling. Ann Clin Psychiatry. 2008;20(4):194–198
  25. Christenson GA, Mackenzie TB, Mitchell JE. Characteristics of 60 adult chronic hair pullers. Am J Psychiatry. 1991;148(3):365–370
  26. Woods DW, Flessner CA, Franklin ME, Keuthen NJ, Goodwin RD, Stein DJ, et al. Trichotillomania Learning Center–Scientific Advisory Board. The Trichotillomania Impact Project (TIP): exploring phenomenology, functional impairment, and treatment utilization. J Clin Psychiatry. 2006;67(12):1877–1888
  27. Franklin ME, Flessner CA, Woods DW, Keuthen NJ, Piacentini J, Moore P. The Child and Adolescent Trichotillomania Impact Project: descriptive psychopathology, comorbidity, functional impairment, and treatment utilization. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2008;29(6):493–500

PII: S0010-440X(09)00055-8

doi: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2009.04.003

Comprehensive Psychiatry
Volume 51, Issue 2 , Pages 183-186 , March 2010

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