FLUVOXAMINE TREATMENT OF TRICHOTILLOMANIA

The present study examined the efficacy of fluvoxamine in the treatmen t of trichotillomania (TM) and coexistent clinical features. Twenty-on e participants with a principal diagnosis of TM were given fluvoxamine in a 12-week open trial, For 13 patients who completed treatment, sig nificant improvement was noted on only a few measures of hair pulling, End-state analyses for the entire group of participants, however, dem onstrated significant improvement in measures of distress, duration, c ontrol, and resistance. Significant decreases over treatment were also found on measures of coexistent anxiety for both the completer and th e entire participant groups; depressive symptoms improved for complete rs. Conclusions about the effectiveness of fluvoxamine for treatment o f TM cannot be drawn, given the uncontrolled nature of the study; howe ver, end-state analyses suggest the potential utility of fluvoxamine i n a subset of patients with TM.