A placebo-controlled, double-blind crossover study of fluoxetine in trichotillomania.
OBJECTIVE
It has been proposed by some investigators that trichotillomania, a disorder of chronic hair pulling, is a variant of obsessive-compulsive disorder, and some studies have suggested that the antiobessional agents clomipramine and fluoxetine are useful in treating this disorder. The authors investigated the efficacy of fluoxetine in the treatment of trichotillomania.


METHODS
Twenty-one adult chronic hair pullers were recruited into an 18-week placebo-controlled, double-blind crossover study of fluoxetine, in doses up to 80 mg/day. The fluoxetine and placebo treatment phases consisted of 6-week trials of each agent separated by a 5-week washout period. Fifteen subjects (14 female and one male) completed the study; an additional female subject dropped out at 16 weeks after developing a drug reaction.


RESULTS
No significant Drug by Period interactions were found in weekly subject ratings of hair pulling, weekly subject ratings of the urge to pull hair, weekly assessments of the number of hair-pulling episodes, or the estimated amount of hair pulled per week.


CONCLUSIONS
The short-term efficacy of fluoxetine in the treatment of trichotillomania was not demonstrated in this study.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455.
G A
GA
Christenson
T B
TB
Mackenzie
J E
JE
Mitchell
A L
AL
Callies
D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D005473:Fluoxetine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory; D010919:Placebos; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014256:Trichotillomania / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology
D010919:Placebos; D005473:Fluoxetine