Posted by socialdeviantjeff on February 11, 2004, at 1:42:46
In reply to Re: skin picking, posted by aussie on February 10, 2004, at 23:47:34
From what I know, there are two predominant schools of thought on this.
One, that skin picking (and trich) is an OCD or self hurt sort of problem. The other idea is that it's a strictly genetic based issue. I think it's probably both. There was a study at the University of Utah (where my pdoc is) where genetically modified mice would overgroom certain spots. They would lose all their fur just in this one spot. The mice were modified to have this specific behavior. It raises a lot of interesting questions. Researchers are also hopeful that they will be able to develop better meds for trich, OCD, skin picking etc. based on this study. Nifty newsbreak over.
Also, there are separate DSM codes specifically for trich (sorry, it's a big word) and skin picking. People with this dx also tend to have comorbid dx's for GAD, Clinical Depression, OCD, BPD and Anorexia.
poster:socialdeviantjeff
thread:311549
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040209/msgs/311937.html