12.08.2012                      24.Aw. 5772

Gesundheit:

Health Scan: Getting a handle on hair pulling

The phenomenon of pulling out one’s own hair has been classified by psychiatrists as an impulse-control disorder.

The phenomenon of pulling out one’s own hair – known by psychiatrists and psychologists as trichotillomania – has been recognized for centuries but has not been widely studied. Thus, how common the phenomenon is, exactly what causes it and how to treat it are not well known. According to an article by researchers at the Be’er Ya’acov Mental Health Center in a recent issue of Israel Medical Association Journal (IMAJ), trichotillomania is referred to in Homer’s Iliad, in William Shakespeare’s plays and in a work by Hippocrates. The phenomenon of trichophagia – eating one’s hair – was mentioned even before trichotillomania. The name of the condition was given in 1889 by a French physician….