Trichorrhizophagia.
Trichotillomania is a form of hair loss characterized by an irresistible compulsion to pull out or twist and break off one's own hair. Extracted hairs are often manipulated, examined, or played with before being discarded or eaten. We report an obsessive-compulsive 65-year-old lady who exclusively ate the root of the hair she plucked, in a very selective type of trichophagia. We suggest the new term trichorrhizophagia which means "eating the root of the hair" (from the Greek rhiza rho iota zeta alpha = root) to name this condition.
Grimalt
Ramon
R
Department of Dermatology, Hospital Clinic University of Barcelona, University of Barcelona, Villarroel 170 08036 Barcelona, Spain. rgrimalt@medicina.ub.es
Happle
Rudolf
R
D000368:Aged; D000505:Alopecia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D014256:Trichotillomania / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology