The prevalence of pathologic skin picking in US adults

Despite increasing recognition of the potentially severe medical and psychosocial costs of pathologic skin picking (PSP), no large-sample, randomized investigation of its prevalence in a national population has been conducted. Two thousand five hundred and thirteen US adults were interviewed during...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Comprehensive psychiatry Vol. 51; no. 2; pp. 183 - 186
Main Authors: Keuthen, Nancy J., Koran, Lorrin M., Aboujaoude, Elias, Large, Michael D., Serpe, Richard T.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.03.2010
Elsevier Limited
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Age Factors
Behavior
Demographics
Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders - epidemiology
Endorsements
Female
Grants
Households
Humans
Interviews
Male
Marital Status
Pharmaceuticals
Phenomenology
Polls & surveys
Population Surveillance
Psychiatry
Self-Injurious Behavior - epidemiology
Skin
Stress, Psychological
Studies
Surveys and Questionnaires
United States
Young Adult
United States
United States > US
ISSN:0010-440X, 1532-8384, 1532-8384
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Despite increasing recognition of the potentially severe medical and psychosocial costs of pathologic skin picking (PSP), no large-sample, randomized investigation of its prevalence in a national population has been conducted. Two thousand five hundred and thirteen US adults were interviewed during the spring and summer of 2004 in a random-sample, national household computer-assisted phone survey of PSP phenomenology and associated functional impairment. Respondents were classified for subsequent analysis according to proposed diagnostic criteria. Of all respondents, 16.6% endorsed lifetime PSP with noticeable skin damage; 60.3% of these denied picking secondary to an inflammation or itch from a medical condition. One fifth to one quarter of those with lifetime PSP not related to a medical condition endorsed tension or nervousness before picking, tension or nervousness when attempting to resist picking, and pleasure or relief during or after picking. A total of 1.4% of our entire sample satisfied our criteria of picking with noticeable skin damage not attributable to another condition and with associated distress or psychosocial impairment. Pickers satisfying these latter criteria differed from other respondents in demographics (age, marital status) and both picking phenomenology and frequency.
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ISSN:0010-440X
1532-8384
1532-8384
DOI:10.1016/j.comppsych.2009.04.003