Excoriation (skin-picking) disorder: a systematic review of treatment options.

Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat

SU/UCT MRC Unit on Risk and Resilience in Mental Disorders, Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Published: July 2017

AI Article Synopsis

  • Pathological skin-picking, also known as excoriation disorder, has been recognized in the medical field for a long time but was only recently classified as a distinct psychiatric disorder in major diagnostic manuals.
  • Excoriation disorder involves recurrent skin-picking that causes skin lesions and significant distress, and it shares similarities with other obsessive-compulsive disorders like trichotillomania (hair-pulling).
  • A systematic review of treatment options from 1996 to 2017 indicates that effective management includes behavioral therapies and medications like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and N-acetyl cysteine.

Article Abstract

Although pathological skin-picking has been documented in the medical literature since the 19th century, it has only recently been included as a distinct entity in psychiatric classification systems. In the , 5th Edition and the proposed International Classification of Diseases, Eleventh Revision, excoriation (skin-picking) disorder (ED), also known as neurotic excoriation, psychogenic excoriation, or dermatillomania), is described as recurrent picking of skin, leading to skin lesions and significant distress or functional impairment. ED is listed as one of the obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, given its overlap with conditions such as trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder). Arguably, its inclusion and delineation in the diagnostic nomenclature will lead to increased awareness of the condition, more research, and ultimately in treatment advances. This systematic review aims to provide readers with an up-to-date view of current treatment options for ED. A MEDLINE search of the ED treatment literature was conducted to collate relevant articles published between 1996 and 2017. The findings indicate that a number of randomized controlled trails on ED have now been published, and that current management options include behavioral therapy (habit reversal or acceptance-enhanced behavior therapy), and medication (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or -acetyl cysteine).

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5522672PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S121138DOI Listing

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