Open AccessVery early onset trichotillomania presenting with recurrent trichobezoar: Conventional wisdom questioned
Author(s) -
Vikas Me,
Subahani Shaik,
Pazhanivel Mohan
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
international journal of trichology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.494
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 0974-9241
pISSN - 0974-7753
DOI - 10.4103/0974-7753.153458
Subject(s) - presentation (obstetrics) , girl , foreign body , medicine , pediatrics , psychology , case presentation , psychiatry , surgery , developmental psychology
Trichotillomania (TTM), a disorder characterized by compulsive hair pulling, is undergoing a conceptual and nosological re-evaluation. Little long-term information is available about this condition when it strikes in early childhood. Trichobezoar, an ingestional foreign body lodged in the gastrointestinal tract composed of swallowed hair, is usually associated with underlying psychiatric and emotional disturbances. In this report, we describe a young girl who had her symptom onset at the age of 3, but presented again after more than a decade with recurrent symptomatic large trichobezoars needing surgical removal both times. Her clinical course and presentation challenged contemporary understanding of TTM.