Self-Grooming Disorders: Separate Entities or a Single Category?

Although DSM-5 categorizes the highly prevalent conditions of trichotillomania (hair pulling resulting in hair loss) and the newly defined excoriation (skin picking) disorder with obsessive compulsive disorders, questions remain as to whether these two entities, along with severe nail biting, represent separate entities or a single disorder, and how they relate to other psychopathological states.

Based on data collected from an online community survey focused on “habits,” Hungarian investigators identified a population of 2501 participants (66% women), of whom 60% reported at least one occurrence of intentional nail biting (19% in the past week), 50% reported skin picking (27% in the past week), and 33% reported hair pulling (17% in the past…