Trichotillomania is a type of mental disorder in which there is a conscious or unconscious pulling out of hair, eyelashes and eyebrows.
According to official data, pathology appears in approximately 2% of the population. Most severely, women are faced with the disease of tearing out hair on the head, and in men and children the ailment is not so common.
What do the manifestations look like?
The obsessive state that patients try to resist provokes the tearing of hairs from the eyelashes, eyebrows, or scalp, after which there comes reassurance and sadness about what happened. Injured areas are hidden with cosmetics, wigs and hats.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder manifests itself as obsessive actions that the patient is forced to perform in order to get rid of restless thoughts. Such a mental disorder does not necessarily apply to hair pulling. The patient can return home many times to make sure that he has locked the door and turned off all appliances, and the like. In childhood, biting nails, skin, self-mutilation, and refusal of food can be attributed to trichotillomania.
Trichotillomania can be aimed both at oneself and at others, pets, fleecy objects. Hair pulling occurs through fingers, tools (tweezers), in bundles or one hair at a time.
About 90% of those suffering from trichotillomania try to fight pathology, but it is not easy to cope with it on their own. Parents who observe trichotillomania in children should seek help from a psychotherapist.
Types of disease
According to one version, trichotillomania is not transmitted genetically and is not congenital. This is an acquired ailment.
There are three types of trichotillomania in children and adults:
- Transitional - a pathological tendency is characterized by stress and strong feelings, based on recent shocks.
- Chronic - observed in persons with personality disorder. Hair pulling also occurs during sleep.
- Occasional - seizures occur every time a stressful situation occurs.
Trichotillomania happens:
Focused - when the patient is consciously preparing to pull out the hairs, armed with tweezers.
Automatic - when the patient is not conscious of his actions. The consequences may remind of themselves later with a bald patch on the head, lack of vegetation in other areas.
Causes and symptoms
The causes of trichotillomania are injuries inflicted on patients in childhood. Tearing hairs out of eyebrows and eyelashes, they try to calm themselves. The disease has deep instinctive roots: trying to calm down, this is how some types of pets, birds behave.
Similar symptoms are also observed in people with an unstable nervous system who did not have such a habit before. Staying in an excited state, they are especially susceptible to incidents of various kinds, and find reassurance in their pathological tendency.
Trichotillomania is common in childhood. If it is observed in a child at 2 years or slightly older (up to 6 years), then by the beginning of puberty it can disappear on its own. Very rarely, pathology occurs in people after 20 years, and almost never after 40.
Among the causes of trichotillomania are the following:
- Stress, mental trauma.
- Depression
- Instability of the nervous system.
- Schizophrenia.
- Bulimia
- Traumatic brain injury.
- Hormonal disorders.
- Deficiency of serotonin, copper, iron in the body.
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The prerequisites for psychological trauma and constant tantrums in a child may be: moving, a change of team, the divorce of parents, the death of a loved one, the beginning of an independent life.
Eyelash trichotillomania
Frequent pulling of hair from the eyebrows is supplemented by thinning out the beard, vegetation in the chest area, armpits. The consequence of eyelash removal is aesthetic discomfort and partial baldness. The look looks painful. Due to the permanent injury of the hair follicles and the skin, the growth of eyelashes is impaired, the eyelids and mucous membranes of the eyes can have an inflamed appearance.
Microtraumas are dangerous for visual impairment. Trichotillomania of eyelashes is accompanied by conjunctivitis, blepharitis, barley, eyelid furunculosis and other diseases that occur due to traumatic effects and penetration into the wounds of infections.
Diagnostics
A sufferer of trichotillomania carefully conceals the signs of the disease, but it is advisable to identify it at an early stage. The specialist collects facts for an objective assessment of the patientās condition, establishing the time of the development of the disease, the features of its course, involving the patientās relatives in the survey.
If it is not possible to establish a provoking etiological factor, laboratory and instrumental procedures of the following types are carried out:
- Hormonal tests.
- Blood analysis.
- Roentgenography.
- Genetic tests.
- Ultrasound of the skull.
- CT and MRI.
The final diagnosis is supplemented with a trichogram - an analysis of the hair roots under a microscope. Watching trichotillomania in children, parents should seek help from a specialist.
Therapies
Medical treatment of trichotillomania in children involves psychotherapy and the use of antidepressants in combination with other methods, which will help improve well-being. A childās psychiatrist should deal with the childās health.
The following methods of exposure are also used:
- X-ray radiation of the spinal cord.
- Paraffin treatment.
- Cryotherapy.
- Hypnosis.
To get rid of the consequences of trichotillomania, special hormonal ointments and other drugs are used.
Medicines
Selective inhibitors ("Fluoxetine"), which increase the concentration of serotonin endorphin in the body, improve mood and eliminate the discomfort caused by damaged hair.
Tricyclic antidepressants have an effect on norepinephrine, dopamine. The proven drug Anafril is effective.
The persistent course of the disorder is the reason for the use of nootropic, psychotropic drugs ("Noofen", "Adaptol"). Homeopathic anti-homotoxic medicines are effective: āNervochelā, āHepelā, āHepar compositumā, āPsorinohelā, āValerianachelā and others.
It should be noted that treatment with drugs gives poor results, since most often trichotillomania is an acquired ailment due to an unhealthy psychological atmosphere in the family.
Psychotherapy
In the treatment of such a disease, special therapy does not exist, since the real origins of trichotillomania are not known. A successful outcome will require the help of a therapist and patient perseverance.
The means of mental influence are aimed at training resistance to stress. Patients usually have low self-esteem. Accepting oneself for what it is helps to combat the manifestations of trichotillomania.
The types of therapy:
- Games. Treatment takes place in the form of a game in which the patient is not limited to formalities and easily speaks out about his inner feelings. The patient is relieved of internal stress, constant tantrums in the child disappear along with the habit of tearing hair. Game therapy is useful if it helps to distract from anxious thoughts.
- Hypnosis. Treatment is carried out by an experienced specialist. Its task is to introduce into the patientās mind the thought of severe pain when pulling hair. Thus, a ban on a bad habit is established.
- Behavioral therapy - is to develop a new habit in the patient with a feeling of anxiety and the desire to tear hair. The child must clench his fist, raise his forearm, and so on. The effectiveness of therapy is high, which is confirmed by numerous reviews.
Artificial limitation
It is recommended that those suffering from trichotillomania find a way to relax in order to avoid obsessive thoughts. It helps sports, going to the theater, hobbies. Adults are able to help their child overcome the disease. It is necessary to conduct discussions about the feelings of the baby or teenager, to resort to soothing methods in the form of beadwork, design, drawing.
If it is possible to track the moments at which hair pulling occurs, artificial methods should be applied to limit the manifestations, which will bring closer to the awareness of actions. It will be useful to wear visors, hoops, and hairpins that will stop the urge to pull the hair out before the action is realized.
More radical methods are also suitable: shaving the head; gluing artificial eyelashes. Moving and changing the familiar environment that have a negative effect on the child can also be useful.
Features of trichotillomania in children
The disease is severe in children with a fragile nervous system, unstable mental defense mechanisms. Symptoms are quite pronounced: the child tears the hair on his head, which causes harm to himself.
Against the background of prolonged depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder is not ruled out, which can be caused by schizophrenia and other pathologies. The complexity of the diagnosis lies in the fact that the symptoms are perceived as the usual moodiness of the child. Often this problem is observed in a child under 6 years old.
Since the body changes during the growth process, hormones and psychological attitudes have an effect.
Children with low self-esteem are more difficult to cope with obsessive thoughts. The patient is aggressive, depressed, suffers from increased excitability, closes in himself. Eaten hair causes digestive problems. Low stress resistance does not allow the child to cope with the pathology without professional help.
The psychoemotional state depends on the moral and material conditions in which the childās self-esteem is formed, which largely depends on the parents. Punished children get used to violence. If a child at 2 years of age harms himself - improper upbringing and moral pressure affect.
Physiological causes of the disorder:
- Serotonin deficiency.
- Hormonal changes.
- Morphological transformations of the brain.
- Allergy to medicines.
Treatment includes the work of a psychologist, analysis of the patientās living conditions, as well as exercises for the formation of new personal attitudes and the elimination of physiological causes. Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps the patient to recognize the incorrectness of their own life-destroying behavior.
Unconventional methods
Garlic oil is an effective treatment for trichotillomania in children at home. It should be taken a teaspoon three times a day for three months.
A good effect will have a mixture of lemon peel and 12 apricot kernels. These ingredients are ground, mixed and consumed in 1 tsp. thrice a day. You can add honey to your taste.
Means of lemon juice, cognac (teaspoon) and chopped head of garlic, which you need to pour a glass of sunflower oil. Means to let it brew for a week. then it can be taken in 1 tsp. thrice a day.
Auxiliaries are decoctions of mint, lemon balm, oregano, chamomile, valerian. They are brewed. But it is worth considering that treatment with folk remedies is ineffective, it is useful only in conjunction with the main methods.
Recommended Nutrition
Foods you need to choose those in which there are a lot of vitamins A and C. These are beef liver, eggs, milk, carrots, pumpkin, spinach, peach, apricot, tomato, bell pepper, yellow-red berries.
Magnesium is also needed to fill the deficiency of trace elements. You can draw it from products such as avocado, rice bran, cereals, beans, any green leafy vegetables.
Medications are indicated only in a neglected form of mental disorder. Physical punishment is contraindicated. The main emphasis is on collective, game, individual psychotherapy. In the process of the child's maturation, the main role is played by the home atmosphere, attention and care that adults can provide.