Odd behavioural problem of the day

Treatment for Hair-Pulling Shows Success - TIME

Quite a surprising report about how an over the counter antioxidant appears to help a majority of people who suffer from compulsive hair pulling.

The report also notes some interesting details about the condition:

We seem wired to attack our hair under traumatic conditions, possibly because forcibly extracting hair is painful; it can divert attention from stress to the more immediate matter of how to solve a pressing problem. For chronic hair pullers, that diversion turns into addictive psychological relief. Some people with trichotillomania pull out hairs not only from their heads but also from their pubic areas and armpits; as many as 20% eat their hair; a small minority pull other people's hairs.

Why does the antioxidant work?:

The compound is thought to work by reducing the synaptic release of a neurotransmitter called glutamate. As Grant told me, glutamate is the communication chemical that "tells the brain, 'Do it! Do it! Do it! Do it!' And the rest of the brain can be overwhelmed by this drive state." Reduce glutamate and you may reduce the drive state. Previous studies have suggested the supplement may also reduce urges to use cocaine and to gamble.

Well, that sounds a useful first thing to try for other strange obsessions then, from wanting a perfectly normal limb removed to having a sex change operation (at least if you are not genetically inter-sexed). Cue Zoe Brain to explain why I should not be drawing equivalences between those two conditions.