I specialize in working with individuals struggling with OCD, eating disorders, and body-focused repetitive behaviors such as trichotillomania and excoriation (skin-picking) disorder. With over seven ... Excoriation involves the mechanical removal of skin layers, often due to scratching or rubbing, while maceration results from prolonged exposure to moisture, leading to softening and breakdown of the skin.

Understanding the Context

Discover the symptoms, treatment, & causes of skin picking disorder (excoriation), a condition in which people repeatedly try to pick at scabs, scars, & other areas of the skin. Severe cases of excoriation disorder can cause life-threatening injuries. According to one reported case, a woman picked a hole through the bridge of her nose, which required surgery to fix, and a 48-year-old woman picked through the skin on her neck, exposing the carotid artery. Dermatillomania, also known as skin picking disorder or excoriation disorder, is a mental health condition where you compulsively pick at your skin.

Key Insights

This can cause injuries, infections and scarring, leading to stress, anxiety and a reduced sense of well-being. Excoriation disorder (also referred to as chronic skin-picking or dermatillomania) is a mental illness related to obsessive-compulsive disorder. It is characterized by repeated picking at one’s own skin which results in areas of swollen or broken skin and causes significant disruption in one’s life. Excoriation disorder is characterized by recurrent picking of one's skin, resulting in skin lesions. Treatment is with habit reversal training, glutamate modulators, and/or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

Final Thoughts

Excoriation disorder (dermatillomania) is repetitive, compulsive skin picking that causes physical and psychological damage. Understand the symptoms, causes, and effective treatment options, including therapy and medication. Excoriation disorder, also referred to as skin-picking disorder or dermatillomania, is a form of self-injury involving picking and probing at a section of skin. The excoriation can lead to cuts, scrapes, sores, infections, and scarring if behaviors continue long-term. Skin picking disorder, clinically known as excoriation disorder or dermatillomania, is a mental health condition characterized by the repetitive, compulsive urge to pick, scratch, dig at, or rub one’s own skin often to the point of causing bleeding, wounds, infection, and permanent scarring. It is far more than a nervous habit or bad grooming ritual.

Excoriation, or skin-picking disorder, is a complex mental health condition that involves habitual scratching, picking, or scratching of the skin, often leading to tissue damage, scars, and infections.