RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW OF TREATMENT OUTCOME FOR 63 PATIENTS WITH TRICHOTILLOMANIA

Objective: The authors' goal was to assess naturalistic treatment outc ome in trichotillomania. Method: Sixty-three patients who had been tre ated in a specialty clinic for trichotillomania over a period of 6 yea rs were contacted. The patients were given paper-and-pencil instrument s that assessed current severity of hairpulling, depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and psychosocial functioning. Results: Significant mean i mprovement was found on measures of hairpulling, depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and psychosocial functioning. Improvement in hairpulling was associated with greater depression at the time of their index clin ic evaluations as well as more improvement in depression after treatme nt. Conclusions: State-of-the-art behavioral and pharmacological treat ments offer substantial benefit to patients with trichotillomania, bot h in hairpulling symptoms and ancillary measures of functioning.