Habit reversal training in trichotillomania: guide for the clinician

Abstract

Trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder) involves repetitive hair pulling that can cause significant distress and impairment in functioning. Both children and adults suffer from the disorder. Habit reversal training (HRT) is the trichotillomania treatment with the most empirical support. HRT begins with developing an in-depth understanding of the client's unique pulling behaviors. The major components of HRT can then be carried out in a way that targets the client's specific needs. These include awareness training and self-monitoring, stimulus control and competing response procedures. Within each of these components the client learns to recognize his or her pulling urges, avoid situations in which pulling is more likely and adopt behaviors that can be used instead of pulling. Future work will involve evaluating the efficacy of adding therapy models such as mindfulness meditation in order to further enhance the effectiveness of HRT, and studying the long-term efficacy of HRT for children and adults.

Full text

Habit reversal training in
trichotillomania: guide for
the clinician
Expert Rev. Neurother. 13(9), 1069–1077 (2013)
Sarah H Morris,
Hana F Zickgraf,
Hilary E Dingfelder
and Martin E Franklin*
University of Pennsylvania,
3535 Market ST, Suite 600,
Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
*Author for correspondence
Tel.: +1 215 746 1230
Fax: +1 215 746 3311
marty@mail.med.upenn.edu
Trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder) involves repetitive hair pulling that can cause significant
distress and impairment in functioning. Both children and adults suffer from the disorder.
Habit reversal training (HRT) is the trichotillomania treatment with the most empirical support.
HRT begins with developing an in-depth understanding of the client’s unique pulling behav-
iors. The major components of HRT can then be carried out in a way that targets the client’s
specific needs. These include awareness training and self-monitoring, stimulus control and
competing response procedures. Within each of these components the client learns to recog-
nize his or her pulling urges, avoid situations in which pulling is more likely and adopt behav-
iors that can be used instead of pulling. Future work will involve evaluating the efficacy of
adding therapy models such as mindfulness meditation in order to further enhance the effec-
tiveness of HRT, and studying the long-term efficacy of HRT for children and adults.
KEYWORDS:awareness training • cognitive behavioral therapy • competing response hair pulling • excoriation • habit
reversal training • self-monitoring • skin picking • stimulus control • trichotillomania
This paper aims to provide a comprehensive
review of the empirical literature and a guide
for clinicians on the use of habit reversal train-
ing (HRT) for trichotillomania (TTM, hair-
pulling disorder [1]). The authors first discuss
the prevalence of TTM. They then present the
diagnostic criteria of TTM as well as diagnos-
tic considerations that should be made when
working with patients with TTM. The authors
then review the evidence for the efficacy of
HRT for TTM, followed by a description of
the major components of HRT and their clini-
cal implementation. Finally, they present more
recent work that has aimed to improve the
effectiveness of HRT for TTM.
Prevalence
TTM (hair-pulling disorder [1]) involves pull-
ing of hair from the scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes,
pubic region or body. The population preva-
lence of TTM has been estimated to range
between 0.6 and 3.5%, with higher prevalence
in women and girls [2]. These prevalence esti-
mates are based on surveys of small samples; no
large-scale epidemiological research has been
conducted, so estimates of TTM prevalence are
likely to be inexact [3]. Hair-pulling behaviors
may exist on a spectrum; surveys of college sam-
ples suggest that as many as 11–15% of respond-
ents report pulling hairs, the majority without
apparent hair loss, distress or impairment [4,5].
The retrospective reports of adults with TTM
suggest that onset in middle childhood to early
adolescence is common [6–8]. Using retrospective
report, Christenson and Mansueto [7] placed the
mean age of TTM onset at 13.
Diagnostic criteria & considerations
According to the Diagnostic and Statics Man-
ual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition
(DSM-5 [1]), TTM diagnosis requires recurrent
pulling of one’s hair, resulting in hair loss,
with repeated attempts to decrease or stop pull-
ing hair. The pulling or hair loss must cause
clinically significant distress or impairment in
functioning, and must not be attributable to a
medical condition (e.g., a dermatological con-
dition) or the symptoms of another mental dis-
order (e.g., pulling to correct a perceived flaw
in body dysmorphic disorder).
Pulling behaviors fall into two broad catego-
ries: focused and automatic [2]. Focused pulling
is intentional and goal-directed; patients often
report pulling in response to a somatic urge
Review
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or feeling of tension, or to regulate negative affect. Automatic
or unfocused pulling takes place outside of awareness, with
patients often realizing that they have been pulling some time
after the onset of the episode. Approximately 35% of both
children and adults with clinically significant pulling report
that they are always aware of pulling; only 3–4% report exclu-
sively automatic pulling. A majority of respondents report
both automatic and focused pulling, although most report that
their pulling is more often focused [2,9].
While automatic pulling appears to be more frequent during
sedentary activities (e.g., watching TV) in both children [10]
and adults [3,11], focused pulling is associated with negative
affect in adults [11,12] and youth [13]. Flessner et al. reported
that in their adult sample, predominantly focused pulling was
associated with greater functional impairment, stress and
depression controlling for TTM severity (compared with low-
focused pullers) [12]. In a sample of youths 10–17, highly
focused pulling was associated with anxiety and depression,
controlling for pulling severity, whereas highly automatic pull-
ing was independently associated with depression but not anxi-
ety [13]. That group differences in anxiety levels among more-
focused versus more-automatic pullers exist in youth but not
adults suggest that patterns of psychological comorbidity may
change with development or duration of illness [13]. Adult
highly focused pullers also may be more likely to relapse, possi-
bly because they use pulling as a coping strategy [12,14].
TTM is associated with significant distress and functional
impairment. Patients often experience guilt and shame related
to their pulling behaviors and hair loss, and many go to great
lengths to hide hair loss. Avoidance of social, recreational and
occupational activities where hair loss may be discovered is
common, and many spend considerable amounts of time or
money on makeup, wigs and other means of concealing hair
loss [3]. In a sample of adults with TTM recruited on the Inter-
net, 43.5% reported avoiding close relationships in order to
conceal their TTM and 16% reported that pulling had inter-
fered with their job performance within the past week [15].In
an Internet-based sample of children with TTM, 55.6% of
parents reported that their child avoided socializing as a direct
result of pulling, and the child-reported pulling severity was
moderately correlated with parent-reported impairment in
socializing and in close relationships [9].
TTM often co-occurs with excoriation (skin picking) disor-
der [1]. The diagnostic criteria for excoriation disorder mirror
those of TTM: recurrent skin picking resulting in skin lesions,
repeated attempts to decrease/stop skin picking, clinically sig-
nificant distress related to skin picking and no other physiologi-
cal, medical or psychological condition that could better
account for the skin picking [1]. Due to the similarity in pre-
sentation of TTM and skin picking, HRT can also be used for
patients with excoriation disorder [3].
TTM is frequently associated with comorbid mood and
anxiety disorders. Christenson reported that 57% currently met
criteria for major depression and 27% for generalized anxiety
disorder [16].Tolinet al. reported a 38% rate of concurrent
comorbidity in a child and adolescent sample; the majority of
these (29%) were anxiety disorders [17].Inanonlinesampleof
parents of youth with TTM, 40.6% of the parents reported that
their child had at least one comorbid diagnosis; the most com-
mon were anxiety (28.5%) and mood disorders (19.4%; [13]).
A majority of both children and adults with TTM appear to
believe that TTM preceded or contributed to their comorbid
emotional disorders [2,9]. Substance use also may be secondary to
TTM in both adults [6,16] and children [2].
Efficacy of HRT for TTM
The distress and impairment associated with TTM highlights
the need for effective treatment. By far, the intervention with
the strongest evidence to support it is HRT. HRT is a behavio-
ral treatment intended to reverse the positive reinforcement of
pulling behaviors. During HRT, patients learn to monitor their
pulling behavior and the antecedents/consequences associated
with pulling (self-monitoring and habit awareness training),
to avoid hair-pulling triggers (stimulus control (SC)), and to
initiate a behavior incompatible with pulling in response to
pulling urges (competing response). HRT packages often incor-
porate cognitive restructuring techniques aimed at modifying
dysfunctional cognitions related to emotion regulation or
pulling behavior.
The randomized controlled trial (RCT) literature supports
the efficacy of HRT for the treatment of TTM in adults [18,19].
The first randomized group study that compared behavioral
treatments for TTM [20] found that patients who received
HRT reported a 99% reduction in number of hair-pulling epi-
sodes, compared with a 58% reduction for patients who
received negative practice. The HRT group maintained these
gains at a 22-month follow-up, with patients reporting 87%
reduction in pulling compared with pre-treatment. Subsequent
studies continued to demonstrate the efficacy of HRT.
Ninan et al. compared a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
package emphasizing habit reversal to clomipramine and pla-
cebo finding that CBT/HRT was superior at post-treatment,
while clomipramine was no better than placebo [21]. While
there has been limited study examining the use of HRT for
TTM in youth, the existing evidence suggests HRT may also
be an effective treatment for children and adolescents with
TTM [14,17].
Assessment & diagnosis
The first step a therapist should take before beginning HRT is
to conduct a thorough assessment. Trichotillomania Diagnostic
Interview (TDI) by Rothbaum and Ninan has been adapted to
survey the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disor-
der, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV [22,23]) criteria and can be used
to assess the severity of TTM in adults and children [3]. The
TDI assesses each of the five DSM-IV criteria (A–E) on a
1–3 scale; each item is scored 1 (absent), 2 (subthreshold) or
3 (threshold/true). In order to qualify for a diagnosis of TTM,
a patient must score 3 on each item. A subset of patients do
not report tension/urges preceding pulling (DSM-IV criteria B)
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and/or pleasure/gratification/relief following pulling (DSM-IV
criteria C) [24,25]. There is no evidence to suggest that these
patients are clinically different from those who do not endorse
these criteria; indeed, several clinical studies have compared
individuals with clinically significant hair pulling who do and
do not meet these criteria and found no differences between
the groups in hair-pulling severity, number of comorbid
depression and anxiety symptoms, number of repetitive body-
focused movements and functional impairments [24,25].Asrec-
ommended by the DSM-5 study group, criteria B and C do
not appear in the DSM-5 [24]. Although the commonly used
assessment instruments for TTM are based on DSM-IV, crite-
ria B and C were often relaxed when admitting patients to clin-
ical trials prior to the publication of DSM-5 [3]. Other DSM
criteria were not significantly changed from DSM-IV to
DSM-5; in both volumes a diagnosis of TTM requires hair
loss, clinically significant distress and impairment, and that the
hair loss or pulling not be accounted for by another physical or
mental disorder. In DSM-IV, attempt to resist or reduce pull-
ing was not a diagnostic criterion.
Franklin and Tolin, following recommendations by
Rothbaum et al., suggest that the TDI be administered in an
open-ended clinical interview [3,5]. Patients should be encour-
aged to share about their hair pulling in an open, narrative
way. After this open phase, the clinician should formally evalu-
ate DSM-IV criteria using the TDI.
This initial assessment is an opportunity to build rapport
and to introduce psychoeducation tailored to each patient’s
understanding of TTM and its treatment, history with TTM
and history with psychotherapy [3]. It should be used to
emphasize to the patient that TTM is well understood and fre-
quently seen in clinical practice, that the disorder is heterogene-
ous and therefore each patients’ expertise on his or her own
pulling is an important aspect of treatment, and that the clini-
cian will be better able to help the patient think about and
solve his or her problems with a full understanding of the
patient’s symptoms. This requires that the patient be willing to
discuss TTM symptoms openly and honestly. Incorporating
psychoeducation early on about TTM not only serves to edu-
cate the patient, but it also helps to normalize behaviors and
provide reassurance that patients are not alone in their symp-
toms. Using clinical examples (e.g., ‘We’ve studied a lot of peo-
ple with TTM, and many times they look for a root after
pulling’), epidemiological information and analogies to more
common nervous habits such as nail biting can help begin the
process of de-stigmatizing patients. Clinicians should also con-
vey their admiration of the patients’ bravery for seeking help,
recognizing that many people experience difficulty discussing
their TTM with others [3].
Because TTM frequently presents with other psychological dis-
orders, it is important for the therapist to screen for commonly
co-occurring conditions such as mood and anxiety disorders.
Patients whose hair pulling is secondary to a mood or anxiety
disorder may be better helped by treatment that addresses their
primary concern prior to beginning HRT for TTM.
Introduction to treatment using HRT
After establishing that TTM is the patient’s primary concern,
the HRT therapist should explain the biopsychosocial and
behavioral models of TTM. Patients who are well informed
about the etiology and maintaining factors of their disorder
may be more confident and engaged in treatment, and more
able to make suggestions for treatment [3]. Providing these
models also assists in externalizing TTM, which is often partic-
ularly helpful for youth with TTM in order to minimize shame
and embarrassment about the problem, and to minimize family
conflicts about who is to blame. For younger children, this
may take the form of assigning TTM a nickname (e.g.,
‘Tricky’) to further emphasize that TTM is the problem and
that therapist and parents are allies with the child in a battle
against TTM. A similar approach has proven useful with pedia-
tric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) [26].
Evidence on the etiology of TTM should be provided.
Briefly, this evidence suggests that the disorder may arise from
one of several non-specific neurobiological vulnerabilities that
increase the likelihood of body-focused habits developing into
full-blown impulse control and/or OCD-spectrum disorders.
For example, there is evidence to suggest that TTM is genetic
and may be associated with a general biological vulnerability to
other repetitive behavior disorders such as OCD [27–29].
Providing the behavioral model of TTM is a critical part of
treatment. The therapist should emphasize that both negative
and positive reinforcement may play a role in the mainte-
nance of TTM. As described earlier, pulling is often preceded
by negative internal states such as unpleasant emotions, aver-
sive physiological sensations or dysregulated arousal. Pulling
may be used as a way to reduce these negative feelings [30]
and thus is negatively reinforcing. Pulling is also often experi-
enced as pleasurable [31,32] leading to positive reinforcement of
urges [31–34]. Behaviors associated with pulling such as playing
with or inspecting the hair, oral stimulation or trichophagia
may also provide pleasurable sensations [35,36]. TTM patients
may experience different kinds of reinforcement at different
times.
Functional analysis
Early in treatment, the therapist should complete a more
nuanced, comprehensive assessment of how TTM presents in
the patient via a functional analysis, with a particular focus on
the factors that reinforce pulling behavior [3]. Functional analy-
sis is based on the premise that all behavior is influenced by
antecedents (events that precede the behavior) and consequen-
ces (events that follow the behavior). Antecedents of pulling
may be external (e.g., settings or activities) or internal (e.g.,
emotions, thoughts or sensations). In the context of the assess-
ment, consequences refer to reinforcers that occur immediately
following pulling behavior. They may either be positive (e.g., a
positive sensation) or negative (e.g., escaping an unpleasant sen-
sation). It is critical to establish the current antecedents and
consequences of the patient’s pulling habit in order to plan
treatment appropriately.
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In this functional analysis, the therapist and patient review a
detailed account of the chain of events that lead to pulling. It
can be helpful to think about the specific act of pulling and
work backward to the earliest identifiable trigger. The earlier a
patient can identify a trigger, the more likely he or she will be
able to resist the urge to pull. Early triggers often include spe-
cific settings, activities, body postures, thoughts, emotions,
physiological sensations, arousal levels and urges to pull. It is
helpful to identify triggers across multiple pulling episodes
since they often vary, even within one individual.
After developing an understanding of the early triggers or
antecedents to a pulling episode, the therapist and patient
work to identify the events that immediately precede pulling.
These ‘pre-pulling events’ are often preparatory ‘grooming’-
like behaviors such as moving hands through hair, tactile or
visual cues or changes in thoughts, feelings or physiological
sensations (e.g., tingling or tension at the pulling site). Next,
it is necessary for the therapist and patient to discuss the
pulling behavior itself and the events that follow, including
any change in thoughts, feelings or physiological sensations
that happen during and/or immediately following pulling. If
the patient visually inspects the hair after pulling, the thera-
pist should probe about what aspect of the hair the patient
looks at (e.g., looking for a white root as if it were a ‘treasure
hunt’). The patient may touch the hair in specific ways, and
the therapist should identify what is reinforcing about this
tactile behavior. How the hair is discarded should be dis-
cussed, as there may be reinforcing elements in this behavior
(e.g., ripping up hairs).
Oral behaviors are common and include touching the hair
to the mouth or biting or eating the hair. It is highly impor-
tant to inquire about and discuss in detail any chewing or swal-
lowing of the hair that may occur. When swallowing of the
hair occurs, there is danger of a trichobezoar developing.
A trichobezoar is a mass of hair (or synthetic fibers) trapped
in the gastrointestinal system that often requires surgical
intervention in order to remove it [37]. Patients with tricho-
bozoars may develop Rapunzel syndrome, a rare complica-
tion that occurs when a gastric trichobeozoar has a long tail
extending into the intestine [38]. Information about the possi-
ble dangers associated with hair ingestion should be con-
veyed in a straightforward, non-judgmental way. If hair
ingestion is occurring, it is recommended that the patient
follow-upwithaphysiciantoruleoutthepresenceofany
trichobezoars, and that the physician continue to monitor
this on a routine basis (e.g., monitoring for signs of gastroin-
testinal distress, routinely scanning the stomach).
Once a complete functional analysis has taken place, the
therapist and patient can move toward implementing the major
components of HRT: awareness training and self-monitoring,
SC and competing response procedures.
Awareness training with self-monitoring
Awareness training with self-monitoring is the first component
of HRT that is implemented. Self-monitoring is a technique
for improving patients’ awareness of pulling and furthering an
understanding of the patterns of pulling behaviors and their
antecedents and consequences. By enabling individuals to
become more aware of the likelihood that the pulling may
occur, monitoring provides opportunities for alternative techni-
ques (habit reversal and SC). Monitoring can also indirectly
reduce pulling by giving the patient something to do instead of
continuing a pulling episode. While the first step of interven-
tion, self-monitoring also continues throughout the entire treat-
ment: changing contingencies associated with pulling might
change the patterns of pulling themselves, and this may need
to be addressed with new strategies.
Patients keep a detailed running log of each pulling incident
throughout the day, ideally as soon as possible after pulling
occurs. Details recorded in self-monitoring logs include the
time and situation, any associated physical states (e.g., fatigue),
emotions (e.g., anxiety, boredom) or thoughts (e.g., symmetry
or color of hair) preceding the pulling, thoughts or feelings
that immediately follow the pulling (e.g., relief, release), how
much hair was pulled and from where and the duration of the
pulling episode. Self-monitoring data should be reviewed dur-
ing each session; this allows the clinician and patient to collab-
oratively develop techniques, provides motivation for the
patient to engage in self-monitoring and may provide positive
reinforcement as the patient sees a pattern of decreasing pulling
throughout treatment.
Another technique for improving awareness of pulling (and
providing a check on the accuracy of logs) is saving pulled
hairs. For patients who engage in post-pulling behaviors such
as manipulation or ingestion of pulled hairs, placing the hairs
in an envelope or plastic bag immediately after pulling also
removes a positively reinforcing element of pulling. For some
patients, the idea of saving their pulled hair is embarrassing or
highly distressing; the purpose of the exercise is not to upset or
humiliate the patient, so if the patient is reluctant, it can be
omitted or implemented later in treatment.
Because self-monitoring is crucial to the success of treatment,
non-adherence should be addressed and remedied quickly.
A problem-solving approach to non-adherence should be
attempted by asking the patient why the monitoring task was
difficult and working together to generate solutions. For
example, patients may prefer to use a mobile phone applica-
tion (e.g., notes) to document pulling behaviors if they dis-
like having a paper log or forget to keep it with them. Phone
alarms or text messages can also be used as reminders to
document pulling. With young children, self-monitoring
should be reinforced with immediate rewards for saving hairs
or completing logs. It might be easier for children to make a
simple slash mark next to the day and date, ask parents to
assist with monitoring or use more concrete alternative strat-
egies such as moving marbles from one pocket to another
andcountingthemuplater.
Patients whose pulling is automatic often struggle with
self-monitoring. These patients may benefit from other forms
of awareness training. These might include the use of visual
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cues, such as a stop signs or ‘TTM’ displayed in areas where
pulling is likely to occur. It also may be helpful to provide
visual, auditory or olfactory cues that pulling is about to
occur. For example, patients may put strong-smelling lotions
or perfumes on their hands and wrists to help increase their
awareness of their hands being near pulling sites on the scalp
or face. Another approach for such patients is to wear jangly
bracelets, rings with small bells or bright nail polish as a way
to alert them when their hands are moving near the face
and head.
Stimulus control
SC is another critical component of HRT for TTM. When
one often pulls in a certain context (e.g., while watching televi-
sion), over time this context often serves as a trigger for pulling
behavior. Pulling may be partly controlled by avoiding these
contexts. Surveys of adult patients receiving a group HRT pro-
gram for TTM as well as children and adolescents receiving
individual HRT treatment rated SC as one of the most helpful
aspects of their treatment [39,40].
When designing a SC plan, it is important to distinguish
between internal and external context stimuli. It is often easier
to control external stimuli, which is why SC is usually directed
around environmental triggers of TTM. These stimuli and SC
strategies to counteract their influence is shown in TABLE 1.
Competing responses
The third major component of HRT involves developing com-
peting responses and behavioral corrections. Competing
responses include manipulating objects such as stress balls or
stretchy rubber toys, clenching the fists or sitting on the hands.
It is important to work collaboratively to identify a list of
strategies that can be applied flexibly across different situations
in which pulling occurs; for example, patients who pull primar-
ily at work may not be able to discretely use a brightly colored
toy as a competing response, but could find an office accessory
such as a magnetic paperweight or use everyday supplies such
as rubber bands or pencils as ‘fidgets’. It often is helpful to
engage a patient’s interest when developing competing
responses; for example, a child interested in art may opt to
doodle as a competing response. Patients are encouraged
to implement a competing response when they feel the urge to
pull or when they are in a ‘high-risk’ situation. Clients also
practice competing response behaviors frequently and in the
absence of pulling triggers for extended durations.
It is recommended that patients engage in competing
responses for at least 1 min at a time. At the end of the first
minute, the patient should be encouraged to ‘check-in’ with
the strength of the urge to pull. If it is as strong or stronger
than it was at the beginning of the minute, the patient should
try to engage in the competing response for another minute.
This process can be repeated as necessary until the urge decreases
or subsides.
The competing response strategy appears to be effective not
just because it replaces the pulling behavior in the moment,
but because it allows the patients to learn that urges subside
over time without pulling. Competing responses may be
conceptualized as similar to response prevention in exposure for
OCD; exposure to anxiety-provoking situations without
attempting to escape or neutralize anxiety through compulsions
teaches patients that they do not need to perform compulsions
to reduce their anxiety. Similarly, engaging in competing
responses for long durations teaches TTM patients that they do
not need to pull in order to reduce their discomfort.
Table 1. Example of stimulus control strategies.
Type of cue Example of cue Stimulus control strategies
Visual Looking at hair in the mirror Use dim light in the bathroom so that visual
access is limited
Tactile/proprioceptive Sensations on fingertips or the
placement of hands
Wear gloves and/or change positions (i.e., don’t rest
head in hand) during high-risk activities
Location On the couch in front of the television Avoid location, if possible (i.e., watch television in
bedroom instead of the living room)
Activity Studying or talking on the phone Since pulling is often associated with activities that are
integral with daily life, avoidance of these activities is
often not appropriate. In this case, using stimulus control
strategies such as wearing gloves while engaging in
triggering activities can be used
Discriminative Specific conditions in which pulling is likely
to take place (i.e., a patient might pull in
the bathroom while in front of the mirror
but only when tweezers are available)
Since it may be impossible to avoid high-risk contexts
all together, discriminative cues can help the therapist
and patient modify the environment so that pulling
is less likely to occur. For example, patient could
remove tweezers from the bathroom. Some patients,
particularly children, might benefit from visual
reminders, such as large stop signs, in the places
where pulling tends to occur
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Relapse prevention
Franklin and Tolin recommend specific strategies for prevent-
ing relapse and recurrence [3]. First, clinicians can emphasize
the progress that was made and the role the patient played in
achieving these gains. It is important to highlight the informa-
tion the patient has gained throughout treatment and the
expertise they have developed in implementing HRT. It is
often helpful to quiz patients on what they would do if urges
resurface or shift to a different body area. Next, clinicians can
normalize post-treatment urges and emphasize that the occur-
rence of urges or pulling following treatment can be expected
due to the nature of TTM. Instead of reacting in alarm, the
patient can turn to the tools developed during treatment.
A plan should be put in place by the therapist and patient for
managing significant lapses or relapse post-treatment. Lapses
should be defined to the patient as, “temporary slip-ups in refrain-
ing from pulling and/or occurrence of intense urges”, while relap-
ses are “a return to the old ways of managing urges to pull
hair” [3]. Should a ‘lapse’ occur, the patient should be encouraged
to resist catastrophizing and instead examine why pulling might
have occurred. For example, did the lapse occur while the patient
was watching TV alone in his or her room when he or she had
forgotten to employ SC techniques such as wearing gloves? This
review may help the patient get back on track and prevent a subse-
quent lapse. Should the patient find themselves experiencing fre-
quent, intense urges to pull and reverting to old pulling habits, he
or she should be encouraged to contact his or her therapist.
Finally, special concern should be given to potential lifestyle
adjustments that could be made to increase the chances of con-
tinuing success of TTM treatment. Significant impairment in
academic/occupational and social functioning related to TTM
is common in both adults and children. Helping patients re-
enter the world of professional work and social engagement
that might have been neglected while TTM was at its worst is
key to continued success.
Developments to improve HRT
RCTs have raised some concern about the high possibility of
relapse following treatment. For example, in a comparison of
HRT, fluoxetine and waitlist conditions, van Minnen et al.
found that, while patients in the HRT group showed the greatest
reduction in TTM symptoms, maintenance of gains was not sta-
ble during the 2-year follow-up period [41]. Open studies of
behavior therapy for TTM that have included follow-up data
have also raised similar concerns [42–44].ClinicalexpertsinTTM
also report the common recurrence of pulling after treatment [45].
In response to these concerns, there has been an effort among
investigators to augment HRT to improve long-term gains.
Woods et al. added elements of acceptance and commitment
therapy (ACT) to an HRT protocol in an effort to decrease
pulling and protect against relapse [46]. Patients were randomized
to HRT plus ACT or waitlist. While the HRT plus ACT group
showed superior gains at post-treatment and maintained those
gains through a 3-month follow-up period, there is no way to
identify the separate contributions of HRT versus ACT.
Keuthen et al. completed a pilot trial in which they treated
provided dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT)-enhanced HRT
to 10 patients with TTM [47]. Participants in this study showed
significant improvement in both hair pulling severity and emo-
tion regulation at the end of treatment and maintained most of
these gains at 3- and 6-month follow-ups. Since research has
suggested that TTM may be associated with difficulties tolerat-
ing emotional distress [48,49], it makes sense that DBT, a treat-
ment that teaches strategies in regulating emotions, would be
helpful for patients with TTM. More research is needed to rep-
licate these findings and compare DBT-enhanced HRT with
HRT alone.
Investigators also have explored the value in adding mainte-
nance and follow-up phases in TTM treatment protocols as
well as including an emphasis on relapse prevention during the
latter part of treatment [3]. Franklin et al. randomized children
and adolescents with TTM to HRT or a minimal attention
control (MAC) condition [14]. HRT was composed of an
8-week acute treatment period followed by an 8-week mainte-
nance period (four in-person sessions and four telephone con-
tacts). These meetings included examination of self-monitoring
logs and current urges/pulling, review of strategies used and
troubleshooting. Patients in the HRT condition showed signifi-
cantly reduced symptoms at the end of an 8-week acute treat-
ment phase while those in the MAC condition did not and
gains were maintained through an 8-week maintenance treat-
ment phase. Of the HRT participants who completed 28- and
40-week naturalistic follow-up assessments (67.3%), 87.5%
were classified as treatment responders. This supports the use
of a specific maintenance period following active treatment for
preventing relapse.
Relaxation and other stress management strategies may be
helpful additions to the intervention protocol [3]. Many forms
of relaxation training have been developed with the aim of
teaching patients to decrease their sympathetic nervous system
arousal. Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) is one of the
more common types and involves focusing sequentially on spe-
cific body parts and first tensing and then relaxing the muscles.
PMR has been shown to be an efficacious treatment for
addressing health concerns [50,51] and some anxiety disor-
ders [52,53]. Because the efficacy of adding relaxation to HRT
for TTM is unknown, the decision of whether to add it to
treatment of an individual patient should be based on the
patient presentation and a functional analysis of the pulling
behavior [3]. For example, patients whose antecedents to pulling
include anxiety or tension and whose pulling leads to reduc-
tions in these arousal feelings may benefit from PMR.
A potentially valuable variation on traditional relaxation tech-
niques that has recently been studied in the context of treatment
for anxiety disorders [54],depression[55] and borderline personal-
ity disorder [56] is mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness medita-
tion teaches the patient to observe their internal experience
objectively rather than attempt to control it, leading to accept-
ance rather than struggle [57]. This technique has begun to be
used for patients with OCD [58] and addictions [59],disorders
Review Morris, Zickgraf, Dingfelder & Franklin
1074 Expert Rev. Neurother. 13(9), (2013)
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that have functional similarities to TTM. Preliminary studies
testing the combination of HRT and mindfulness-based
approaches have shown some promise for the benefits of mind-
fulness meditation in TTM treatment [45,60].
Expert commentary
As more research is conducted, HRT will likely continue to
develop and adapt additional strategies that enhance its effec-
tiveness. In fact, our center is currently conducting an RCT
assessing the efficacy of HRT for children with TTM between
the ages of 10–17. It is our hope that evidence from this trial
will help to address the lack of research on treatment of pedia-
tric TTM and add to the scientific and clinical knowledge of
the mechanisms of HRT. Even in its current form, however,
HRT is a valuable approach to treating TTM in patients of all
ages with demonstrated efficacy. By using HRT strategies and
techniques, therapists can help patients with TTM take control
of their hair pulling and reduce its interference in their
daily lives.
Five-year view
In addition to exploring the benefits of adding mindfulness
mediation and elements of DBT or ACT to HRT, more
research needs to be done investigating the efficacy of N-acetyl-
cysteine (NAC), a glutamate modulator, for TTM. Preliminary
RCTs suggested that NAC may be an effective treatment for
adults [61] with TTM but not for children and adolescents [62].
Future work should explore whether the effectiveness of HRT
is increased when NAC is administered concurrently, particu-
larly in adult patients with TTM.
Another area of interest is the role that response inhibition
(RI) plays in TTM. Studies have shown that adult patients
with TTM and related disorders such as OCD and Tourette’s
syndrome have deficits in RI as measured on computerized
tasks such as the no/go-task and the stop-signal task [63–65].
Studies in the coming years should begin to examine whether
improving RI in patients with TTM using computerized
response inhibition training (RIT) programs is related to a
decrease in symptom severity. If this were the case, computer-
ized RIT could be a valuable adjunctive treatment provided to
patients while they are waiting for HRT to begin or following
HRT as a relapse-prevention tool.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with
any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict
with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This
includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options,
expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.
Key issues
• Trichotillomania (TTM) involves pulling of hair from the scalp, eyebrows, eyelashes, pubic region or body.
• TTM can cause significant distress or impairment to patients.
• Habit reversal therapy (HRT) is the treatment with the most empirical support.
• An in-depth functional analysis of the patient’s hair pulling is essential in effectively using HRT to treat TTM.
• The main components of HRT are awareness training and self-monitoring, stimulus control (SC) and competing response procedures.
• Adding therapeutic approaches to HRT such as acceptance and commitment therapy, dialectical behavior therapy and mindfulness
meditation are being tested and may enhance HRT’s effectiveness further.
References
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