Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2015 Jan-Mar;7(1):24-5.
doi: 10.4103/0974-7753.153452.

Trichotillomania by proxy

Avinash De Sousa  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Trichotillomania by proxy

Avinash De Sousa. Int J Trichology. 2015 Jan-Mar.

Abstract

Trichotillomania is a disorder of an impulsive hair pulling that occurs in both adults and children alike. Trichotillomania is seen in children and often has other psychiatric comorbidity. Here, we present an interesting case of a mother who had trichotillomania and recovered with treatment following which she resorted to pulling hair of her child and brought her child for treatment saying that the child too had trichotillomania and that we should help the child recover like her. After interviewing the child, it was revealed that it was, in fact, the mother who used to pull the child's hair as a release for her hair-pulling urges.

Keywords: Hair pulling; trichotillomania; trichotillomania by proxy.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

References

    1. Cardona D, Franklin ME. Helping children and teens stop impulsive hair pulling. Curr Psychiatry. 2004;3:73–7.
    1. Diefenbach GJ, Mouton-Odum S, Stanley MA. Affective correlates of trichotillomania. Behav Res Ther. 2002;40:1305–15. - PubMed
    1. Christenson GA. Trichotillomania: From prevalence to comorbidity. Psychiatr Times. 1995;12:44–8.
    1. Hanna GL. Trichotillomania and related disorders in children and adolescents. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 1997;27:255–68. - PubMed
    1. Swedo SE, Leonard HL. Trichotillomania. An obsessive compulsive spectrum disorder? Psychiatr Clin North Am. 1992;15:777–90. - PubMed

Publication types