mental health disorders
Skin Picking (Excoriation) Disorder
Introduction
In skin-picking disorder, people repeatedly pick at their skin, damaging it. People with skin-picking disorder may feel tense or anxious just before they do it, and skin picking may relieve that feeling. Doctors diagnose the disorder when people pick at the skin enough to damage it, try to decrease or stop picking at their skin and cannot, and are significantly distressed by their behavior or function less well because of it. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (habit reversal therapy) that specifically focuses on skin-picking disorder and certain antidepressants orN-acetylcysteineormemantinemay help lessen symptoms. People with the disorder repeatedly pick at or scratch their skin. They do not do it to remove a spot or blemish that they think is unattractive (as people with Body Dysmorphic Disorder do) or diseased. Some people pick at healthy skin. Others pick at calluses, pimples, or scabs. Skin picking often begins during adolescence, although it may begin at other ages. About 1 to 2% of people currently have the disorder. About 75% of them are female. 