National Network of Depression Centers

Update on Trichotillomania

Features Martin Franklin, PhD, University of Pennsylvania

Despite its occurrence in up to 3.4% of adults, hair–pulling disorder or trichotillomania (TTM) is often under-diagnosed and inappropriately treated, according to a panel of experts presenting at the recent APA meeting in Philadelphia. 
   
The experts described the phenomenology, epidemiology, symptoms and diagnosis of trichotillomania; discussed psychopharmacologic and behavioral treatment modalities for the disorder, along with recent trials in children and adults; highlighted research advances; and summarized proposed changes for the disorder in the DSM-5. 

Presenters were Douglas Woods, PhD, Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who has an NIH grant to study Acceptance-Enhanced Behavior Therapy for Trichotillomania; Jon E Grant, MD, MPH, JD, Professor of Psychiatry and Co-Director of the Impulse Control Disorders Clinic at the University of Minnesota-Milwaukee; and Martin Franklin, PhD, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the Child and Adolescent OCD, Tic, Trich and Anxiety Group (COTTAGe). Others were Michael Bloch, MD, Assistant Professor in the Yale Child Study Center and Assistant Director of the Yale OCD Clinic, and Eric Hollander, MD, Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Autism and Obsessive Compulsive Spectrum Program at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, in New York. Melissa Rooney, MD, served as Chair.

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Posted to Members in the News & Publications on May 14, 2012