NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - For patients with chronic skin picking, a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder, that is severe enough to cause physical damage, results of a small study suggest that the ...

I have always been a picker. I remember it from my earliest playground knee grazes—the irresistible urge to peel off the scab as soon as it formed; to see the bright white flesh beneath. I knew I wasn ...

Skin picking is often brushed off as a bad habit or a lack of willpower, but for many people it is neither simple nor voluntary. Dermatillomania, also known as excoriation disorder, is a clinically ...

Scabs get a bad reputation because they’re dry, crusty, and inconvenient, but they are one of the body’s most effective protection systems. From a biological standpoint, a scab is your skin’s ...

Over the course of their lives, up to 220,000 Norwegians will pick at their skin or pull out their hair to an extent that can be considered a mental health disorder. They pull out their hair until ...

I sat nervously in the exam room, staring at the floor as my mom sat nearby. At age ten, I’d never been to a dermatologist before, and I didn’t know what to expect. My pessimistic mind pictured a ...

One local non-profit is raising awareness for a little-known, often misdiagnosed, and life pervasive disorder. The “Picking Me Foundation” advocates for people struggling with compulsive skin-picking ...

A fear of being alone triggered my new habit. It was almost the holidays, and another good friend — one of the few left unmarried — became engaged. Immediately, the fear I'd had since childhood of ...