Most everyone plays mindlessly with their hair from time to time. But for some people it becomes such an uncontrollable compulsion that they end up with bald patches or eyebrows plucked bare.
If it's any comfort, animals too suffer from "grooming compulsions."
Though the behavior is documented in the Bible and ancient medical texts, treatment for hair-pulling has not been studied much. But now a University of Minnesota researcher might have found an answer in a common, over-the-counter nutritional supplement that costs about $15 for 100 pills.
Better yet, his breakthrough could hold promise for a whole range of common obsessive behaviors, from nail-biting to hand-washing.
Dr. Jon Grant, a psychiatrist who specializes in addictive and compulsive behaviors, found that an antioxidant called N- acetylcysteine (NAC) helped about half of the hair-pullers in his study. Some engaged the behavior less often, and some quit altogether.
It's not a cure-all, Grant said, because it didn't work in the other half of his subjects. Still, the study, published Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry, is important because it shows for the first time that reducing a certain chemical in the brain also eases an uncontrollable behavioral obsession.
Extreme hair-pulling is relatively uncommon compared to other grooming compulsions such as nail-biting, he said, but it occurs in all cultures and in animals.
"Dogs lick themselves to the point of hair loss," he said. "Parrots pull out all their feathers."
Some studies have shown that anywhere from 1 to 4 percent of people engage in hair-pulling at some point in their lives, more often in women than men. Like most obsessive behaviors, it's probably genetic. But the people who suffer from it often suffer in silence and shame, Grant said.
The most extreme cases, he said, "have difficulty hiding the bald spots," he said. "They wear false eyelashes or pencil in their eyebrows. Over time it's led them to not date, or get married, or socialize."
One of the women in his study picked at her hair for six or seven hours a day. She asked to be identified only by her first name, Jacqueline, because she didn't want others to know her problem. She picked her hair during meetings at work, and then after dinner she'd sit for hours picking split ends. She didn't get bald, but her hair became noticeably thinner.
"I felt guilty because I couldn't stop," she said. "I wasn't living my life."
The only current treatments for obsessive behaviors are antidepressants, which don't work well, and counseling, which doesn't always work.
For some time researchers have hypothesized that the brain chemical glutamate might be a cause because it's linked to excitation, reward and motivation. It's part of the vicious brain-chemistry cycle in addiction. Grant decided to try NAC, an amino acid that does not come in any kind of food, because it's known to suppress glutamate. He decided to focus on hair pickers because "it was a greatly under- served population of people."
He found 50 obsessive hair pickers. Half got a sham drug, half got NAC - 2,400 milligrams a day. After three months, 56 percent of those on the drug showed noticeable improvement compared to 16 percent on the placebo.
After taking the drug for three weeks, Jacqueline stopped hair picking almost altogether. She recognized she was getting the real therapy, not the placebo. "There is no way that my mind is powerful enough to stop something like that," she said. "I couldn't believe it."
There is now a much larger study of NAC headed by researchers at Yale University to see if it works on a broader range of obsessive behaviors.
Grant said he believes some might be helped and others won't because of differences in how people metabolize the chemical.
But one obsessive nail-biter in his office who was initially a skeptic is now a convert.
Health food supplement may curb compulsive hair pulling Published: Monday, July 6, 2009 - 15:44 in Health & Medicine University of Minnesota Medical School researchers have discovered that a common anti-oxidant, widely available as a health food supplement, may help stop the urges of those with trichotillomania, a disorder characterized by compulsive hair-pulling. Fifty people enrolled in a double-blind 12 week study; half were given N-Acetylcysteine, an amino acid commonly found in health food supplements. The average age of patients who enrolled was about 34, and most started pulling hair compulsively by the age of 12. Patients were given 1,200 mg of N-Acetylcysteine every day for six weeks. For the following six weeks, the dosage was increased to 2,400 mg per day. After nine weeks, those on supplement had significantly reduced hair- pulling. By the end of the 12 week study, 56 percent reported feeling much or very much improved, while only 16 percent on the placebo reported less pulling.
The study is published in the July, 2009 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
"Trichotillomania is compulsive in the sense that people can't control it. People feel unable to stop the behavior even though they know it is causing negative consequences," said Jon Grant, M.D., J.D., a University of Minnesota associate professor of psychiatry and principal investigator of the study. "Some people don't even know they are doing it."
Those who have trichotillomania compulsively or habitually pull their hair to the point of noticeable loss. It is most commonly associated with women, but men can also be affected, and pulling can occur anywhere on the body. Grant believes 2 to 4 percent of the general population is impacted by trichotillomania on some level.
"These are people who have tried all kinds of things that have never worked," Grant said. "The reality is that if you pull hair and it is on a noticeable part of the body, people are really disabled by this. It's not easy to go out in public if people are noticing your bald spots. Self esteem is a huge problem. This supplement may offer hope."
The study is significant on another level because it's one of the first studies of compulsive behaviors to look at lowering levels of glutamate – a chemical that triggers excitement – in the brain to curb harmful behavior rather than serotonin, a naturally occurring chemical most commonly linked to compulsive behavior. This supplement affects levels of glutamate in a specific area of the brain, making it easier for patients to put the breaks on their harmful behavior.
For that reason, Grant believes glutamate modulators such as N- Acetylcysteine may be applicable to other disorders, addictions, and compulsive behaviors.
Most everyone plays mindlessly with their hair from time to time. But for some people it becomes such an uncontrollable compulsion that they end up with bald patches or eyebrows plucked bare.
If it's any comfort, animals too suffer from "grooming compulsions."
Though the behavior is documented in the Bible and ancient medical texts, treatment for hair-pulling has not been studied much. But now a University of Minnesota researcher might have found an answer in a common, over-the-counter nutritional supplement that costs about $15 for 100 pills.
Better yet, his breakthrough could hold promise for a whole range of common obsessive behaviors, from nail-biting to hand-washing.
Dr. Jon Grant, a psychiatrist who specializes in addictive and compulsive behaviors, found that an antioxidant called N- acetylcysteine (NAC) helped about half of the hair-pullers in his study. Some engaged the behavior less often, and some quit altogether.
It's not a cure-all, Grant said, because it didn't work in the other half of his subjects. Still, the study, published Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry, is important because it shows for the first time that reducing a certain chemical in the brain also eases an uncontrollable behavioral obsession.
Extreme hair-pulling is relatively uncommon compared to other grooming compulsions such as nail-biting, he said, but it occurs in all cultures and in animals.
"Dogs lick themselves to the point of hair loss," he said. "Parrots pull out all their feathers."
Some studies have shown that anywhere from 1 to 4 percent of people engage in hair-pulling at some point in their lives, more often in women than men. Like most obsessive behaviors, it's probably genetic. But the people who suffer from it often suffer in silence and shame, Grant said.
The most extreme cases, he said, "have difficulty hiding the bald spots," he said. "They wear false eyelashes or pencil in their eyebrows. Over time it's led them to not date, or get married, or socialize."
One of the women in his study picked at her hair for six or seven hours a day. She asked to be identified only by her first name, Jacqueline, because she didn't want others to know her problem. She picked her hair during meetings at work, and then after dinner she'd sit for hours picking split ends. She didn't get bald, but her hair became noticeably thinner.
"I felt guilty because I couldn't stop," she said. "I wasn't living my life."
The only current treatments for obsessive behaviors are antidepressants, which don't work well, and counseling, which doesn't always work.
For some time researchers have hypothesized that the brain chemical glutamate might be a cause because it's linked to excitation, reward and motivation. It's part of the vicious brain-chemistry cycle in addiction. Grant decided to try NAC, an amino acid that does not come in any kind of food, because it's known to suppress glutamate. He decided to focus on hair pickers because "it was a greatly under- served population of people."
He found 50 obsessive hair pickers. Half got a sham drug, half got NAC - 2,400 milligrams a day. After three months, 56 percent of those on the drug showed noticeable improvement compared to 16 percent on the placebo.
After taking the drug for three weeks, Jacqueline stopped hair picking almost altogether. She recognized she was getting the real therapy, not the placebo. "There is no way that my mind is powerful enough to stop something like that," she said. "I couldn't believe it."
There is now a much larger study of NAC headed by researchers at Yale University to see if it works on a broader range of obsessive behaviors.
Grant said he believes some might be helped and others won't because of differences in how people metabolize the chemical.
But one obsessive nail-biter in his office who was initially a skeptic is now a convert.
Health food supplement may curb compulsive hair pulling Published: Monday, July 6, 2009 - 15:44 in Health & Medicine University of Minnesota Medical School researchers have discovered that a common anti-oxidant, widely available as a health food supplement, may help stop the urges of those with trichotillomania, a disorder characterized by compulsive hair-pulling. Fifty people enrolled in a double-blind 12 week study; half were given N-Acetylcysteine, an amino acid commonly found in health food supplements. The average age of patients who enrolled was about 34, and most started pulling hair compulsively by the age of 12. Patients were given 1,200 mg of N-Acetylcysteine every day for six weeks. For the following six weeks, the dosage was increased to 2,400 mg per day. After nine weeks, those on supplement had significantly reduced hair- pulling. By the end of the 12 week study, 56 percent reported feeling much or very much improved, while only 16 percent on the placebo reported less pulling.
The study is published in the July, 2009 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
"Trichotillomania is compulsive in the sense that people can't control it. People feel unable to stop the behavior even though they know it is causing negative consequences," said Jon Grant, M.D., J.D., a University of Minnesota associate professor of psychiatry and principal investigator of the study. "Some people don't even know they are doing it."
Those who have trichotillomania compulsively or habitually pull their hair to the point of noticeable loss. It is most commonly associated with women, but men can also be affected, and pulling can occur anywhere on the body. Grant believes 2 to 4 percent of the general population is impacted by trichotillomania on some level.
"These are people who have tried all kinds of things that have never worked," Grant said. "The reality is that if you pull hair and it is on a noticeable part of the body, people are really disabled by this. It's not easy to go out in public if people are noticing your bald spots. Self esteem is a huge problem. This supplement may offer hope."
The study is significant on another level because it's one of the first studies of compulsive behaviors to look at lowering levels of glutamate – a chemical that triggers excitement – in the brain to curb harmful behavior rather than serotonin, a naturally occurring chemical most commonly linked to compulsive behavior. This supplement affects levels of glutamate in a specific area of the brain, making it easier for patients to put the breaks on their harmful behavior.
For that reason, Grant believes glutamate modulators such as N- Acetylcysteine may be applicable to other disorders, addictions, and compulsive behaviors.
Most everyone plays mindlessly with their hair from time to time. But for some people it becomes such an uncontrollable compulsion that they end up with bald patches or eyebrows plucked bare.
If it's any comfort, animals too suffer from "grooming compulsions."
Though the behavior is documented in the Bible and ancient medical texts, treatment for hair-pulling has not been studied much. But now a University of Minnesota researcher might have found an answer in a common, over-the-counter nutritional supplement that costs about $15 for 100 pills.
Better yet, his breakthrough could hold promise for a whole range of common obsessive behaviors, from nail-biting to hand-washing.
Dr. Jon Grant, a psychiatrist who specializes in addictive and compulsive behaviors, found that an antioxidant called N- acetylcysteine (NAC) helped about half of the hair-pullers in his study. Some engaged the behavior less often, and some quit altogether.
It's not a cure-all, Grant said, because it didn't work in the other half of his subjects. Still, the study, published Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry, is important because it shows for the first time that reducing a certain chemical in the brain also eases an uncontrollable behavioral obsession.
Extreme hair-pulling is relatively uncommon compared to other grooming compulsions such as nail-biting, he said, but it occurs in all cultures and in animals.
"Dogs lick themselves to the point of hair loss," he said. "Parrots pull out all their feathers."
Some studies have shown that anywhere from 1 to 4 percent of people engage in hair-pulling at some point in their lives, more often in women than men. Like most obsessive behaviors, it's probably genetic. But the people who suffer from it often suffer in silence and shame, Grant said.
The most extreme cases, he said, "have difficulty hiding the bald spots," he said. "They wear false eyelashes or pencil in their eyebrows. Over time it's led them to not date, or get married, or socialize."
One of the women in his study picked at her hair for six or seven hours a day. She asked to be identified only by her first name, Jacqueline, because she didn't want others to know her problem. She picked her hair during meetings at work, and then after dinner she'd sit for hours picking split ends. She didn't get bald, but her hair became noticeably thinner.
"I felt guilty because I couldn't stop," she said. "I wasn't living my life."
The only current treatments for obsessive behaviors are antidepressants, which don't work well, and counseling, which doesn't always work.
For some time researchers have hypothesized that the brain chemical glutamate might be a cause because it's linked to excitation, reward and motivation. It's part of the vicious brain-chemistry cycle in addiction. Grant decided to try NAC, an amino acid that does not come in any kind of food, because it's known to suppress glutamate. He decided to focus on hair pickers because "it was a greatly under- served population of people."
He found 50 obsessive hair pickers. Half got a sham drug, half got NAC - 2,400 milligrams a day. After three months, 56 percent of those on the drug showed noticeable improvement compared to 16 percent on the placebo.
After taking the drug for three weeks, Jacqueline stopped hair picking almost altogether. She recognized she was getting the real therapy, not the placebo. "There is no way that my mind is powerful enough to stop something like that," she said. "I couldn't believe it."
There is now a much larger study of NAC headed by researchers at Yale University to see if it works on a broader range of obsessive behaviors.
Grant said he believes some might be helped and others won't because of differences in how people metabolize the chemical.
But one obsessive nail-biter in his office who was initially a skeptic is now a convert.
Health food supplement may curb compulsive hair pulling Published: Monday, July 6, 2009 - 15:44 in Health & Medicine University of Minnesota Medical School researchers have discovered that a common anti-oxidant, widely available as a health food supplement, may help stop the urges of those with trichotillomania, a disorder characterized by compulsive hair-pulling. Fifty people enrolled in a double-blind 12 week study; half were given N-Acetylcysteine, an amino acid commonly found in health food supplements. The average age of patients who enrolled was about 34, and most started pulling hair compulsively by the age of 12. Patients were given 1,200 mg of N-Acetylcysteine every day for six weeks. For the following six weeks, the dosage was increased to 2,400 mg per day. After nine weeks, those on supplement had significantly reduced hair- pulling. By the end of the 12 week study, 56 percent reported feeling much or very much improved, while only 16 percent on the placebo reported less pulling.
The study is published in the July, 2009 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
"Trichotillomania is compulsive in the sense that people can't control it. People feel unable to stop the behavior even though they know it is causing negative consequences," said Jon Grant, M.D., J.D., a University of Minnesota associate professor of psychiatry and principal investigator of the study. "Some people don't even know they are doing it."
Those who have trichotillomania compulsively or habitually pull their hair to the point of noticeable loss. It is most commonly associated with women, but men can also be affected, and pulling can occur anywhere on the body. Grant believes 2 to 4 percent of the general population is impacted by trichotillomania on some level.
"These are people who have tried all kinds of things that have never worked," Grant said. "The reality is that if you pull hair and it is on a noticeable part of the body, people are really disabled by this. It's not easy to go out in public if people are noticing your bald spots. Self esteem is a huge problem. This supplement may offer hope."
The study is significant on another level because it's one of the first studies of compulsive behaviors to look at lowering levels of glutamate – a chemical that triggers excitement – in the brain to curb harmful behavior rather than serotonin, a naturally occurring chemical most commonly linked to compulsive behavior. This supplement affects levels of glutamate in a specific area of the brain, making it easier for patients to put the breaks on their harmful behavior.
For that reason, Grant believes glutamate modulators such as N- Acetylcysteine may be applicable to other disorders, addictions, and compulsive behaviors.
Most everyone plays mindlessly with their hair from time to time. But for some people it becomes such an uncontrollable compulsion that they end up with bald patches or eyebrows plucked bare.
If it's any comfort, animals too suffer from "grooming compulsions."
Though the behavior is documented in the Bible and ancient medical texts, treatment for hair-pulling has not been studied much. But now a University of Minnesota researcher might have found an answer in a common, over-the-counter nutritional supplement that costs about $15 for 100 pills.
Better yet, his breakthrough could hold promise for a whole range of common obsessive behaviors, from nail-biting to hand-washing.
Dr. Jon Grant, a psychiatrist who specializes in addictive and compulsive behaviors, found that an antioxidant called N- acetylcysteine (NAC) helped about half of the hair-pullers in his study. Some engaged the behavior less often, and some quit altogether.
It's not a cure-all, Grant said, because it didn't work in the other half of his subjects. Still, the study, published Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry, is important because it shows for the first time that reducing a certain chemical in the brain also eases an uncontrollable behavioral obsession.
Extreme hair-pulling is relatively uncommon compared to other grooming compulsions such as nail-biting, he said, but it occurs in all cultures and in animals.
"Dogs lick themselves to the point of hair loss," he said. "Parrots pull out all their feathers."
Some studies have shown that anywhere from 1 to 4 percent of people engage in hair-pulling at some point in their lives, more often in women than men. Like most obsessive behaviors, it's probably genetic. But the people who suffer from it often suffer in silence and shame, Grant said.
The most extreme cases, he said, "have difficulty hiding the bald spots," he said. "They wear false eyelashes or pencil in their eyebrows. Over time it's led them to not date, or get married, or socialize."
One of the women in his study picked at her hair for six or seven hours a day. She asked to be identified only by her first name, Jacqueline, because she didn't want others to know her problem. She picked her hair during meetings at work, and then after dinner she'd sit for hours picking split ends. She didn't get bald, but her hair became noticeably thinner.
"I felt guilty because I couldn't stop," she said. "I wasn't living my life."
The only current treatments for obsessive behaviors are antidepressants, which don't work well, and counseling, which doesn't always work.
For some time researchers have hypothesized that the brain chemical glutamate might be a cause because it's linked to excitation, reward and motivation. It's part of the vicious brain-chemistry cycle in addiction. Grant decided to try NAC, an amino acid that does not come in any kind of food, because it's known to suppress glutamate. He decided to focus on hair pickers because "it was a greatly under- served population of people."
He found 50 obsessive hair pickers. Half got a sham drug, half got NAC - 2,400 milligrams a day. After three months, 56 percent of those on the drug showed noticeable improvement compared to 16 percent on the placebo.
After taking the drug for three weeks, Jacqueline stopped hair picking almost altogether. She recognized she was getting the real therapy, not the placebo. "There is no way that my mind is powerful enough to stop something like that," she said. "I couldn't believe it."
There is now a much larger study of NAC headed by researchers at Yale University to see if it works on a broader range of obsessive behaviors.
Grant said he believes some might be helped and others won't because of differences in how people metabolize the chemical.
But one obsessive nail-biter in his office who was initially a skeptic is now a convert.
Health food supplement may curb compulsive hair pulling Published: Monday, July 6, 2009 - 15:44 in Health & Medicine University of Minnesota Medical School researchers have discovered that a common anti-oxidant, widely available as a health food supplement, may help stop the urges of those with trichotillomania, a disorder characterized by compulsive hair-pulling. Fifty people enrolled in a double-blind 12 week study; half were given N-Acetylcysteine, an amino acid commonly found in health food supplements. The average age of patients who enrolled was about 34, and most started pulling hair compulsively by the age of 12. Patients were given 1,200 mg of N-Acetylcysteine every day for six weeks. For the following six weeks, the dosage was increased to 2,400 mg per day. After nine weeks, those on supplement had significantly reduced hair- pulling. By the end of the 12 week study, 56 percent reported feeling much or very much improved, while only 16 percent on the placebo reported less pulling.
The study is published in the July, 2009 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
"Trichotillomania is compulsive in the sense that people can't control it. People feel unable to stop the behavior even though they know it is causing negative consequences," said Jon Grant, M.D., J.D., a University of Minnesota associate professor of psychiatry and principal investigator of the study. "Some people don't even know they are doing it."
Those who have trichotillomania compulsively or habitually pull their hair to the point of noticeable loss. It is most commonly associated with women, but men can also be affected, and pulling can occur anywhere on the body. Grant believes 2 to 4 percent of the general population is impacted by trichotillomania on some level.
"These are people who have tried all kinds of things that have never worked," Grant said. "The reality is that if you pull hair and it is on a noticeable part of the body, people are really disabled by this. It's not easy to go out in public if people are noticing your bald spots. Self esteem is a huge problem. This supplement may offer hope."
The study is significant on another level because it's one of the first studies of compulsive behaviors to look at lowering levels of glutamate – a chemical that triggers excitement – in the brain to curb harmful behavior rather than serotonin, a naturally occurring chemical most commonly linked to compulsive behavior. This supplement affects levels of glutamate in a specific area of the brain, making it easier for patients to put the breaks on their harmful behavior.
For that reason, Grant believes glutamate modulators such as N- Acetylcysteine may be applicable to other disorders, addictions, and compulsive behaviors.
Most everyone plays mindlessly with their hair from time to time. But for some people it becomes such an uncontrollable compulsion that they end up with bald patches or eyebrows plucked bare.
If it's any comfort, animals too suffer from "grooming compulsions."
Though the behavior is documented in the Bible and ancient medical texts, treatment for hair-pulling has not been studied much. But now a University of Minnesota researcher might have found an answer in a common, over-the-counter nutritional supplement that costs about $15 for 100 pills.
Better yet, his breakthrough could hold promise for a whole range of common obsessive behaviors, from nail-biting to hand-washing.
Dr. Jon Grant, a psychiatrist who specializes in addictive and compulsive behaviors, found that an antioxidant called N- acetylcysteine (NAC) helped about half of the hair-pullers in his study. Some engaged the behavior less often, and some quit altogether.
It's not a cure-all, Grant said, because it didn't work in the other half of his subjects. Still, the study, published Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry, is important because it shows for the first time that reducing a certain chemical in the brain also eases an uncontrollable behavioral obsession.
Extreme hair-pulling is relatively uncommon compared to other grooming compulsions such as nail-biting, he said, but it occurs in all cultures and in animals.
"Dogs lick themselves to the point of hair loss," he said. "Parrots pull out all their feathers."
Some studies have shown that anywhere from 1 to 4 percent of people engage in hair-pulling at some point in their lives, more often in women than men. Like most obsessive behaviors, it's probably genetic. But the people who suffer from it often suffer in silence and shame, Grant said.
The most extreme cases, he said, "have difficulty hiding the bald spots," he said. "They wear false eyelashes or pencil in their eyebrows. Over time it's led them to not date, or get married, or socialize."
One of the women in his study picked at her hair for six or seven hours a day. She asked to be identified only by her first name, Jacqueline, because she didn't want others to know her problem. She picked her hair during meetings at work, and then after dinner she'd sit for hours picking split ends. She didn't get bald, but her hair became noticeably thinner.
"I felt guilty because I couldn't stop," she said. "I wasn't living my life."
The only current treatments for obsessive behaviors are antidepressants, which don't work well, and counseling, which doesn't always work.
For some time researchers have hypothesized that the brain chemical glutamate might be a cause because it's linked to excitation, reward and motivation. It's part of the vicious brain-chemistry cycle in addiction. Grant decided to try NAC, an amino acid that does not come in any kind of food, because it's known to suppress glutamate. He decided to focus on hair pickers because "it was a greatly under- served population of people."
He found 50 obsessive hair pickers. Half got a sham drug, half got NAC - 2,400 milligrams a day. After three months, 56 percent of those on the drug showed noticeable improvement compared to 16 percent on the placebo.
After taking the drug for three weeks, Jacqueline stopped hair picking almost altogether. She recognized she was getting the real therapy, not the placebo. "There is no way that my mind is powerful enough to stop something like that," she said. "I couldn't believe it."
There is now a much larger study of NAC headed by researchers at Yale University to see if it works on a broader range of obsessive behaviors.
Grant said he believes some might be helped and others won't because of differences in how people metabolize the chemical.
But one obsessive nail-biter in his office who was initially a skeptic is now a convert.
Health food supplement may curb compulsive hair pulling Published: Monday, July 6, 2009 - 15:44 in Health & Medicine University of Minnesota Medical School researchers have discovered that a common anti-oxidant, widely available as a health food supplement, may help stop the urges of those with trichotillomania, a disorder characterized by compulsive hair-pulling. Fifty people enrolled in a double-blind 12 week study; half were given N-Acetylcysteine, an amino acid commonly found in health food supplements. The average age of patients who enrolled was about 34, and most started pulling hair compulsively by the age of 12. Patients were given 1,200 mg of N-Acetylcysteine every day for six weeks. For the following six weeks, the dosage was increased to 2,400 mg per day. After nine weeks, those on supplement had significantly reduced hair- pulling. By the end of the 12 week study, 56 percent reported feeling much or very much improved, while only 16 percent on the placebo reported less pulling.
The study is published in the July, 2009 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
"Trichotillomania is compulsive in the sense that people can't control it. People feel unable to stop the behavior even though they know it is causing negative consequences," said Jon Grant, M.D., J.D., a University of Minnesota associate professor of psychiatry and principal investigator of the study. "Some people don't even know they are doing it."
Those who have trichotillomania compulsively or habitually pull their hair to the point of noticeable loss. It is most commonly associated with women, but men can also be affected, and pulling can occur anywhere on the body. Grant believes 2 to 4 percent of the general population is impacted by trichotillomania on some level.
"These are people who have tried all kinds of things that have never worked," Grant said. "The reality is that if you pull hair and it is on a noticeable part of the body, people are really disabled by this. It's not easy to go out in public if people are noticing your bald spots. Self esteem is a huge problem. This supplement may offer hope."
The study is significant on another level because it's one of the first studies of compulsive behaviors to look at lowering levels of glutamate – a chemical that triggers excitement – in the brain to curb harmful behavior rather than serotonin, a naturally occurring chemical most commonly linked to compulsive behavior. This supplement affects levels of glutamate in a specific area of the brain, making it easier for patients to put the breaks on their harmful behavior.
For that reason, Grant believes glutamate modulators such as N- Acetylcysteine may be applicable to other disorders, addictions, and compulsive behaviors.
Most everyone plays mindlessly with their hair from time to time. But for some people it becomes such an uncontrollable compulsion that they end up with bald patches or eyebrows plucked bare.
If it's any comfort, animals too suffer from "grooming compulsions."
Though the behavior is documented in the Bible and ancient medical texts, treatment for hair-pulling has not been studied much. But now a University of Minnesota researcher might have found an answer in a common, over-the-counter nutritional supplement that costs about $15 for 100 pills.
Better yet, his breakthrough could hold promise for a whole range of common obsessive behaviors, from nail-biting to hand-washing.
Dr. Jon Grant, a psychiatrist who specializes in addictive and compulsive behaviors, found that an antioxidant called N- acetylcysteine (NAC) helped about half of the hair-pullers in his study. Some engaged the behavior less often, and some quit altogether.
It's not a cure-all, Grant said, because it didn't work in the other half of his subjects. Still, the study, published Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry, is important because it shows for the first time that reducing a certain chemical in the brain also eases an uncontrollable behavioral obsession.
Extreme hair-pulling is relatively uncommon compared to other grooming compulsions such as nail-biting, he said, but it occurs in all cultures and in animals.
"Dogs lick themselves to the point of hair loss," he said. "Parrots pull out all their feathers."
Some studies have shown that anywhere from 1 to 4 percent of people engage in hair-pulling at some point in their lives, more often in women than men. Like most obsessive behaviors, it's probably genetic. But the people who suffer from it often suffer in silence and shame, Grant said.
The most extreme cases, he said, "have difficulty hiding the bald spots," he said. "They wear false eyelashes or pencil in their eyebrows. Over time it's led them to not date, or get married, or socialize."
One of the women in his study picked at her hair for six or seven hours a day. She asked to be identified only by her first name, Jacqueline, because she didn't want others to know her problem. She picked her hair during meetings at work, and then after dinner she'd sit for hours picking split ends. She didn't get bald, but her hair became noticeably thinner.
"I felt guilty because I couldn't stop," she said. "I wasn't living my life."
The only current treatments for obsessive behaviors are antidepressants, which don't work well, and counseling, which doesn't always work.
For some time researchers have hypothesized that the brain chemical glutamate might be a cause because it's linked to excitation, reward and motivation. It's part of the vicious brain-chemistry cycle in addiction. Grant decided to try NAC, an amino acid that does not come in any kind of food, because it's known to suppress glutamate. He decided to focus on hair pickers because "it was a greatly under- served population of people."
He found 50 obsessive hair pickers. Half got a sham drug, half got NAC - 2,400 milligrams a day. After three months, 56 percent of those on the drug showed noticeable improvement compared to 16 percent on the placebo.
After taking the drug for three weeks, Jacqueline stopped hair picking almost altogether. She recognized she was getting the real therapy, not the placebo. "There is no way that my mind is powerful enough to stop something like that," she said. "I couldn't believe it."
There is now a much larger study of NAC headed by researchers at Yale University to see if it works on a broader range of obsessive behaviors.
Grant said he believes some might be helped and others won't because of differences in how people metabolize the chemical.
But one obsessive nail-biter in his office who was initially a skeptic is now a convert.
Health food supplement may curb compulsive hair pulling Published: Monday, July 6, 2009 - 15:44 in Health & Medicine University of Minnesota Medical School researchers have discovered that a common anti-oxidant, widely available as a health food supplement, may help stop the urges of those with trichotillomania, a disorder characterized by compulsive hair-pulling. Fifty people enrolled in a double-blind 12 week study; half were given N-Acetylcysteine, an amino acid commonly found in health food supplements. The average age of patients who enrolled was about 34, and most started pulling hair compulsively by the age of 12. Patients were given 1,200 mg of N-Acetylcysteine every day for six weeks. For the following six weeks, the dosage was increased to 2,400 mg per day. After nine weeks, those on supplement had significantly reduced hair- pulling. By the end of the 12 week study, 56 percent reported feeling much or very much improved, while only 16 percent on the placebo reported less pulling.
The study is published in the July, 2009 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
"Trichotillomania is compulsive in the sense that people can't control it. People feel unable to stop the behavior even though they know it is causing negative consequences," said Jon Grant, M.D., J.D., a University of Minnesota associate professor of psychiatry and principal investigator of the study. "Some people don't even know they are doing it."
Those who have trichotillomania compulsively or habitually pull their hair to the point of noticeable loss. It is most commonly associated with women, but men can also be affected, and pulling can occur anywhere on the body. Grant believes 2 to 4 percent of the general population is impacted by trichotillomania on some level.
"These are people who have tried all kinds of things that have never worked," Grant said. "The reality is that if you pull hair and it is on a noticeable part of the body, people are really disabled by this. It's not easy to go out in public if people are noticing your bald spots. Self esteem is a huge problem. This supplement may offer hope."
The study is significant on another level because it's one of the first studies of compulsive behaviors to look at lowering levels of glutamate – a chemical that triggers excitement – in the brain to curb harmful behavior rather than serotonin, a naturally occurring chemical most commonly linked to compulsive behavior. This supplement affects levels of glutamate in a specific area of the brain, making it easier for patients to put the breaks on their harmful behavior.
For that reason, Grant believes glutamate modulators such as N- Acetylcysteine may be applicable to other disorders, addictions, and compulsive behaviors.
Most everyone plays mindlessly with their hair from time to time. But for some people it becomes such an uncontrollable compulsion that they end up with bald patches or eyebrows plucked bare.
If it's any comfort, animals too suffer from "grooming compulsions."
Though the behavior is documented in the Bible and ancient medical texts, treatment for hair-pulling has not been studied much. But now a University of Minnesota researcher might have found an answer in a common, over-the-counter nutritional supplement that costs about $15 for 100 pills.
Better yet, his breakthrough could hold promise for a whole range of common obsessive behaviors, from nail-biting to hand-washing.
Dr. Jon Grant, a psychiatrist who specializes in addictive and compulsive behaviors, found that an antioxidant called N- acetylcysteine (NAC) helped about half of the hair-pullers in his study. Some engaged the behavior less often, and some quit altogether.
It's not a cure-all, Grant said, because it didn't work in the other half of his subjects. Still, the study, published Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry, is important because it shows for the first time that reducing a certain chemical in the brain also eases an uncontrollable behavioral obsession.
Extreme hair-pulling is relatively uncommon compared to other grooming compulsions such as nail-biting, he said, but it occurs in all cultures and in animals.
"Dogs lick themselves to the point of hair loss," he said. "Parrots pull out all their feathers."
Some studies have shown that anywhere from 1 to 4 percent of people engage in hair-pulling at some point in their lives, more often in women than men. Like most obsessive behaviors, it's probably genetic. But the people who suffer from it often suffer in silence and shame, Grant said.
The most extreme cases, he said, "have difficulty hiding the bald spots," he said. "They wear false eyelashes or pencil in their eyebrows. Over time it's led them to not date, or get married, or socialize."
One of the women in his study picked at her hair for six or seven hours a day. She asked to be identified only by her first name, Jacqueline, because she didn't want others to know her problem. She picked her hair during meetings at work, and then after dinner she'd sit for hours picking split ends. She didn't get bald, but her hair became noticeably thinner.
"I felt guilty because I couldn't stop," she said. "I wasn't living my life."
The only current treatments for obsessive behaviors are antidepressants, which don't work well, and counseling, which doesn't always work.
For some time researchers have hypothesized that the brain chemical glutamate might be a cause because it's linked to excitation, reward and motivation. It's part of the vicious brain-chemistry cycle in addiction. Grant decided to try NAC, an amino acid that does not come in any kind of food, because it's known to suppress glutamate. He decided to focus on hair pickers because "it was a greatly under- served population of people."
He found 50 obsessive hair pickers. Half got a sham drug, half got NAC - 2,400 milligrams a day. After three months, 56 percent of those on the drug showed noticeable improvement compared to 16 percent on the placebo.
After taking the drug for three weeks, Jacqueline stopped hair picking almost altogether. She recognized she was getting the real therapy, not the placebo. "There is no way that my mind is powerful enough to stop something like that," she said. "I couldn't believe it."
There is now a much larger study of NAC headed by researchers at Yale University to see if it works on a broader range of obsessive behaviors.
Grant said he believes some might be helped and others won't because of differences in how people metabolize the chemical.
But one obsessive nail-biter in his office who was initially a skeptic is now a convert.
Health food supplement may curb compulsive hair pulling Published: Monday, July 6, 2009 - 15:44 in Health & Medicine University of Minnesota Medical School researchers have discovered that a common anti-oxidant, widely available as a health food supplement, may help stop the urges of those with trichotillomania, a disorder characterized by compulsive hair-pulling. Fifty people enrolled in a double-blind 12 week study; half were given N-Acetylcysteine, an amino acid commonly found in health food supplements. The average age of patients who enrolled was about 34, and most started pulling hair compulsively by the age of 12. Patients were given 1,200 mg of N-Acetylcysteine every day for six weeks. For the following six weeks, the dosage was increased to 2,400 mg per day. After nine weeks, those on supplement had significantly reduced hair- pulling. By the end of the 12 week study, 56 percent reported feeling much or very much improved, while only 16 percent on the placebo reported less pulling.
The study is published in the July, 2009 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
"Trichotillomania is compulsive in the sense that people can't control it. People feel unable to stop the behavior even though they know it is causing negative consequences," said Jon Grant, M.D., J.D., a University of Minnesota associate professor of psychiatry and principal investigator of the study. "Some people don't even know they are doing it."
Those who have trichotillomania compulsively or habitually pull their hair to the point of noticeable loss. It is most commonly associated with women, but men can also be affected, and pulling can occur anywhere on the body. Grant believes 2 to 4 percent of the general population is impacted by trichotillomania on some level.
"These are people who have tried all kinds of things that have never worked," Grant said. "The reality is that if you pull hair and it is on a noticeable part of the body, people are really disabled by this. It's not easy to go out in public if people are noticing your bald spots. Self esteem is a huge problem. This supplement may offer hope."
The study is significant on another level because it's one of the first studies of compulsive behaviors to look at lowering levels of glutamate – a chemical that triggers excitement – in the brain to curb harmful behavior rather than serotonin, a naturally occurring chemical most commonly linked to compulsive behavior. This supplement affects levels of glutamate in a specific area of the brain, making it easier for patients to put the breaks on their harmful behavior.
For that reason, Grant believes glutamate modulators such as N- Acetylcysteine may be applicable to other disorders, addictions, and compulsive behaviors.
Most everyone plays mindlessly with their hair from time to time. But for some people it becomes such an uncontrollable compulsion that they end up with bald patches or eyebrows plucked bare.
If it's any comfort, animals too suffer from "grooming compulsions."
Though the behavior is documented in the Bible and ancient medical texts, treatment for hair-pulling has not been studied much. But now a University of Minnesota researcher might have found an answer in a common, over-the-counter nutritional supplement that costs about $15 for 100 pills.
Better yet, his breakthrough could hold promise for a whole range of common obsessive behaviors, from nail-biting to hand-washing.
Dr. Jon Grant, a psychiatrist who specializes in addictive and compulsive behaviors, found that an antioxidant called N- acetylcysteine (NAC) helped about half of the hair-pullers in his study. Some engaged the behavior less often, and some quit altogether.
It's not a cure-all, Grant said, because it didn't work in the other half of his subjects. Still, the study, published Monday in the Archives of General Psychiatry, is important because it shows for the first time that reducing a certain chemical in the brain also eases an uncontrollable behavioral obsession.
Extreme hair-pulling is relatively uncommon compared to other grooming compulsions such as nail-biting, he said, but it occurs in all cultures and in animals.
"Dogs lick themselves to the point of hair loss," he said. "Parrots pull out all their feathers."
Some studies have shown that anywhere from 1 to 4 percent of people engage in hair-pulling at some point in their lives, more often in women than men. Like most obsessive behaviors, it's probably genetic. But the people who suffer from it often suffer in silence and shame, Grant said.
The most extreme cases, he said, "have difficulty hiding the bald spots," he said. "They wear false eyelashes or pencil in their eyebrows. Over time it's led them to not date, or get married, or socialize."
One of the women in his study picked at her hair for six or seven hours a day. She asked to be identified only by her first name, Jacqueline, because she didn't want others to know her problem. She picked her hair during meetings at work, and then after dinner she'd sit for hours picking split ends. She didn't get bald, but her hair became noticeably thinner.
"I felt guilty because I couldn't stop," she said. "I wasn't living my life."
The only current treatments for obsessive behaviors are antidepressants, which don't work well, and counseling, which doesn't always work.
For some time researchers have hypothesized that the brain chemical glutamate might be a cause because it's linked to excitation, reward and motivation. It's part of the vicious brain-chemistry cycle in addiction. Grant decided to try NAC, an amino acid that does not come in any kind of food, because it's known to suppress glutamate. He decided to focus on hair pickers because "it was a greatly under- served population of people."
He found 50 obsessive hair pickers. Half got a sham drug, half got NAC - 2,400 milligrams a day. After three months, 56 percent of those on the drug showed noticeable improvement compared to 16 percent on the placebo.
After taking the drug for three weeks, Jacqueline stopped hair picking almost altogether. She recognized she was getting the real therapy, not the placebo. "There is no way that my mind is powerful enough to stop something like that," she said. "I couldn't believe it."
There is now a much larger study of NAC headed by researchers at Yale University to see if it works on a broader range of obsessive behaviors.
Grant said he believes some might be helped and others won't because of differences in how people metabolize the chemical.
But one obsessive nail-biter in his office who was initially a skeptic is now a convert.
Health food supplement may curb compulsive hair pulling Published: Monday, July 6, 2009 - 15:44 in Health & Medicine University of Minnesota Medical School researchers have discovered that a common anti-oxidant, widely available as a health food supplement, may help stop the urges of those with trichotillomania, a disorder characterized by compulsive hair-pulling. Fifty people enrolled in a double-blind 12 week study; half were given N-Acetylcysteine, an amino acid commonly found in health food supplements. The average age of patients who enrolled was about 34, and most started pulling hair compulsively by the age of 12. Patients were given 1,200 mg of N-Acetylcysteine every day for six weeks. For the following six weeks, the dosage was increased to 2,400 mg per day. After nine weeks, those on supplement had significantly reduced hair- pulling. By the end of the 12 week study, 56 percent reported feeling much or very much improved, while only 16 percent on the placebo reported less pulling.
The study is published in the July, 2009 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
"Trichotillomania is compulsive in the sense that people can't control it. People feel unable to stop the behavior even though they know it is causing negative consequences," said Jon Grant, M.D., J.D., a University of Minnesota associate professor of psychiatry and principal investigator of the study. "Some people don't even know they are doing it."
Those who have trichotillomania compulsively or habitually pull their hair to the point of noticeable loss. It is most commonly associated with women, but men can also be affected, and pulling can occur anywhere on the body. Grant believes 2 to 4 percent of the general population is impacted by trichotillomania on some level.
"These are people who have tried all kinds of things that have never worked," Grant said. "The reality is that if you pull hair and it is on a noticeable part of the body, people are really disabled by this. It's not easy to go out in public if people are noticing your bald spots. Self esteem is a huge problem. This supplement may offer hope."
The study is significant on another level because it's one of the first studies of compulsive behaviors to look at lowering levels of glutamate – a chemical that triggers excitement – in the brain to curb harmful behavior rather than serotonin, a naturally occurring chemical most commonly linked to compulsive behavior. This supplement affects levels of glutamate in a specific area of the brain, making it easier for patients to put the breaks on their harmful behavior.
For that reason, Grant believes glutamate modulators such as N- Acetylcysteine may be applicable to other disorders, addictions, and compulsive behaviors.
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