Core symptoms and treatment options

Information about body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) BFRBs can be described as excessive self-care behaviors that involve pulling, plucking, or scratching the skin, nails, or hair and result...

Trichotillomania

The urge to pull out one’s own hair is called trichotillomania. Literally, trichotillomania means “hair-plucking madness.” Trichotillomania is characterized by the repeated pulling...

Nail Biting (Onychophagia)

Nail biting—or onychophagia—also counts as a body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB). Onychophagia literally means “fingernail/toenail eating.” It is characterized by repetitive biting or...

Skin Picking (Dermatillomania)

Skin picking—also referred to as dermatillomania or excoriation disorder—has been classified as a distinct disorder under the umbrella term of “body-focused repetitive disorders” (BFRBs), as has...

Lip-Cheek Biting (Cavitadaxia)

Lip-cheek biting—also referred to as cavitadaxia (Moritz et al., 2020)—is included under the overarching category of “body-focused repetitive disorders” (BFRBs; APA, 2013). This behavior includes...

Other impulse-control disorders

Joint Cracking Affected individuals attempt to release nervous energy by cracking their joints, most often their knuckles. If the cracking is suppressed, they experience tension and an urge to...