Trichotemnomania in a Pre-School Child with Major Depressive Disorder

Abstract

Trichotemnomania is defined as obsessive compulsive behavior characterized by shaving or cutting off the hair in any region of the body, such as the scalp, eyebrows or eyelashes. Trichotemnomania does not appear under any classification in DSM-5, but does occur as ‘dermatitis para artefacta’ in dermatology guidelines. Childhood depression is a severe psychiatric disorder that significantly affects the child’s psychosocial development, and that may be missed or not adequately treated in clinical practice. We encountered no previous reports or studies indicating a relation between depression and trichotemnomania. We report a case of a five-year old boy with depression and trichotemnomania. We think that our case will be of interest to clinicians since there have been no previous reports at that age, and due to its rarity in clinical practice, or maybe never being encountered at all.