title: Characteristics of 60 adult chronic hair pullers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study was constructed to detail the demographic and phenomenological features of chronic hair pullers as well as to assess psychiatric comorbidity in a sizable study group.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjects were drawn from an outpatient population of chronic hair pullers who had been referred to a trichotillomania clinic or had responded to a newspaper advertisement announcing a treatment study of adults who pull out their hair. Sixty adult chronic hair pullers completed a semistructured interview that focused on their hair-pulling behavior and demographic characteristics and that incorporated screening questions for DSM-III-R axis I disorders. The data were tabulated to derive a comprehensive picture of this group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The typical subject was a 34-year-old woman who had pulled hair from two or more sites for 21 years. All subjects described either tension before or relief/gratification after pulling hair from the primary site, but 17% (N = 10) failed to describe both of these characteristics and thus failed to fulfill the DMS-III-R criteria for trichotillomania. Forty-nine subjects (82%) qualified for past or current axis I diagnoses other than trichotillomania. Several characteristics of the study group suggested phenomenological differences between obsessive-compulsive disorder and trichotillomania.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Adult trichotillomania is a chronic disorder, frequently involving multiple hair sites, and is associated with high rates of psychiatric comorbidity. Its relation to obsessive-compulsive disorder requires further clarification. The tension-reduction requirement in DSM-III-R for the diagnosis of trichotillomania may be overly restrictive.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455.
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Christenson
authors.forename: T B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Mackenzie
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Mitchell
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D012652:Self Mutilation / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D014256:Trichotillomania / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology