NONCLINICAL HAIR PULLING - PHENOMENOLOGY AND RELATED PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

Two hundred eighty-eight college students were assessed to examine the epidemiology, phenomenology, and associated psychopathology of hair p ulling in a nonclinical population. With regard to the latter, the sev erity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms was of particular interest give n hypotheses regarding diagnostic overlap between trichotillomania (TM ) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Forty-four individuals (15. 3%) reported that they engaged in hair pulling, with 20.4% indicating that the behavior occurred at least once per day. As is the case with TM, the behavior occurred more frequently in women. In addition, the m ost frequent hair-pulling sites and precipitating situations were simi lar to those reported previously by clinic TM patients. The presence o f hair pulling was associated with severity of obsessive-compulsive sy mptoms primarily in women, although in the total sample hair pulling w as related to higher levels of interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety, and neuroticism. It is hypothesized that overlap between symptoms of TM a nd OCD may not be unique, but in fact may be a function of a generaliz ed state of anxiety that accompanies both disorders. Directions for fu ture research should include comparison of psychopathology in clinical and nonclinical groups, with a critical assessment of the relationshi p between hair pulling and symptoms of the anxiety disorders.