Trichotillomania Research
Written by Stuart Stevens | Sunday, 21 January 2007 | There are 0 comments
trichotillomania is likely to be related to anxiety and depression
A very unusual and rare hair loss condition that isn't well researched and documented like Male Pattern Balding is Trichotillomania. This condition is thought to be more of a psychological disease and occurs when the patients literally pulls out their own hair and can be so bad as to leave unsightly patches all over the head.
A new study documenting the disease has just been released by the University of Wisconsin and Milwaukee and the authors of the study say they believe that the problem is not just a nervous habit but a more deeply rooted psychological condition that is related to the relieving of tension on the patient. They also claim that as many as 3.4% of people suffer from the trichotillomania condition at some point in their lives.
The research that was released by the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry shows that trichotillomania is likely to be related to anxiety and depression and that it is made even more confusing as only certain depressed people get the problem and thus it is difficult to pinpoint the cause exactly as to why they continue to pull out their hair.
In the research almost 1700 men and women were interviewed and studied and 40% of those people said that the condition meant that they avoided going out and meeting friends as a result and 1 in 5 said that they even missed going on holiday due to anxiety about the way they looked.
More worryingly 14% confessed having turned to alcohol to help with the stress of trichotillomania and almost 20% said that they smoked for the same reason. The most common type of treatment for trichotillomania is the use of anti depressants like Prozac but even with these drugs only 5% reported that they were ‘very much improved’ after treatment.
The researchers felt that whole drugs could help in some cases the best way to deal with trichotillomania was cognitive behavioural therapy which would teach sufferers to see and change their negative and destructive attitudes to themselves.
Trichotillomania are also known to swallow the hair that they pull out causing stomach problems for themselves. The condition can escalate as a vicious circle is created with more hair loss causing more depression and so on.
