Trichotillomania: An Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorder?

In this chapter, we argue that it is a useful heuristic to conceptualize trichotillomania (TTM) as belonging to an obsessive-compulsive spectrum of disorders. Viewing TTM from this perspective provides the researcher with several fertile hypotheses with which to explore the psychobiology of this condition, and it provides the clinician with useful potential strategies for assessment and treatment. At the same time, viewing TTM as related to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) does not in any way imply that there are not crucial differences between the symptoms, pathogenesis, and management of the two disorders. Similarly, a view of TTM as an OCD spectrum condition does not exclude the possibility that TTM may be more closely related to a range of other conditions that are characterized by stereotypic or self-injurious behaviors, than it is to OCD.