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Information about Nail Biting

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Fingers of an extreme nail-biter.
Nail biting is the habit of biting one's fingernails or toenails during periods of nervousness, stress, hunger, or boredom [1]. It can also be a sign of mental or emotional disorder. It can be obsessive compulsive or can even be a completely unconscious act where the affected person is not or barely aware of the behavior whilst performing it. It has been documented that some people bite their nails in their sleep, sometimes exclusively. This has been linked to stress while dreaming or stress from the dream, or simply stress in general. It considered to be the most widespread form of mild self mutilation. According to Freudian theory, nail biting is a symptom of oral fixation. The clinical name for nail biting is chronic onychophagia It occurs in:[2]
  • 28% to 33% of children ages 7-10 years old,
  • 44% of adolescents,
  • 19% to 29% of young adults and
  • 5% of older adults
  • It is more common in young males

Negative effects

Nail biting may result in the transportation of bacteria that are buried under the surface of the nail that are hard to clean and easy to get in the mouth. [3]Likewise, broken skin on the cuticle may be susceptible to microbial and viral infections. These pathogens can be spread between digits via saliva.

Extreme nailbiting can be considered to be a form of masochistic self-mutilation. Bitten fingertips can become very sensitive to pain, usually at the place the skin meets the edge of the nail.

Nail Biting and IQ

Recent studies made by Russian researchers have found that nail biting may be contributing to the loss of IQ due to lead poisoning. This is specially true among children who are still mentally developing. Nail biters who also work with iron(plumbers, painters or printers) can also be affected by this poisoning.

Treatment

[4] Causes of fingernail Biting

Behavioral therapy

Some patients have found behavioral therapy to be beneficial on its own or as a complement to medication. The first part of nail biting therapy consists of Habit Reversal Training (HRT), a four part process that seeks to "unlearn" the habit of nail biting and possibly replace it with a more constructive habit. In addition to HRT, stimulus control therapy is used to both identify and then eliminate the stimulus that frequently triggers biting urges.[5]

The symptoms have been found to respond best to a combination of medication and therapy.

Medication

Nail biting has been shown to respond well to certain types of medication. The medications used to treat the problem include the newest, most potent anti-depressants. These medications are also used to treat Trichotillomania and OCD and include clomipramine, fluoxetine, sertraline, paroxetine, fluvoxamine, citalopram, escitalopram, nefazodone and venlafaxine. Also, small amounts of the anti-psychotics used to treat schizophrenia such as risperidone, olazapine, quetiapine, ziprasidone, and aripiprazole can be used to augment anti-depressants. It is important to note that the use of anti-psychotics to treat nail biting does not necessarily indicate that the patient is suffering from psychosis. [6]

Other treatment

Various forms of aversion therapy exists to help people stop biting their nails. These include methods such as coating the nails with a bad-tasting substance (sometimes in the form of a special nail polish, tabasco sauce, or gel deodorant) or wearing a rubber band on their wrist and having friends and family members snap it (or tell the nailbiter to snap it) when they see nailbiting. Replacing the habit of biting nails by the habit of chewing gum works for some people. Some methods (including aforementioned aversion methods) can work by making the biter aware of their actions and finding other things to do.

Some nail biters who undergo orthodontic treatment find that wearing a retainer or a bite plate makes it impossible for them to sever their nails with their teeth. This can have the unintentional side-effect of helping the individual to overcome their nail-biting habit.

Some nail-biters, however, find the effectiveness of all of these remedies to be poor. For them, it may take sheer determination to break the habit. Tactics they may find helpful include making a mental note to stop, promising oneself not to bite, and making it a New Year's resolution, or other such commitment to stop.

Like other nervous habits, nail biting is sometimes a symptom of an emotional problem. In these cases, resolving the underlying problem can help to lessen or eliminate the nail-biting habit.

Another method is to get regular manicures, as having neat, polished nails will keep some people (particularly women) from biting them.

Famous Nail-biters

References

See also

External links

A bite is a wound received from the mouth (and in particular, the teeth) of an animal or person. Animals may bite in self-defense, or in an attempt to predate food. Other bite attacks may be apparently unprovoked, especially in the case of bites committed by psychologically or
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nail is a horn-like structure at the end of a human's or an animal's finger or toe. See also claw.

Parts of the nail

Anatomically fingernails and toenails
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nail is a horn-like structure at the end of a human's or an animal's finger or toe. See also claw.

Parts of the nail

Anatomically fingernails and toenails
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Anxiety is a physiological state characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional, and behavioral components (Seligman, Walker & Rosenhan, 2001). These components combine to create the feelings that we typically recognize as fear, apprehension, or worry.
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This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject.
Please help recruit one or [ improve this article] yourself. See the talk page for details.
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Hunger is a feeling experienced when the glycogen level of the liver falls below a threshold, usually followed by a desire to eat. The usually unpleasant feeling originates in the hypothalamus and is released through receptors in the liver.
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Boredom has been defined by Fisher in terms of its central psychological processes: “an unpleasant, transient affective state in which the individual feels a pervasive lack of interest in and difficulty concentrating on the current activity.
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Sigmund Freud

Born May 6 1856(1856--)
Freiberg, Moravia, now the Czech Republic
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The oral stage in psychology is the term used by Sigmund Freud to describe the child's development during the first 0 to 18 months of life, in which an infant's pleasure centers are in the mouth. This is the first of Freud's psychosexual stages.
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Bacteria

Phyla

Actinobacteria
Aquificae
Chlamydiae
Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi
Chloroflexi
Chrysiogenetes
Cyanobacteria
Deferribacteres
Deinococcus-Thermus
Dictyoglomi
Fibrobacteres/Acidobacteria
Firmicutes
Fusobacteria
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Behavior modification is a technique of altering an individual's behaviors and reactions to stimuli through positive and negative reinforcement of adaptive behavior and/or the extinction of maladaptive behavior through positive and negative punishment.
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Habit reversal training (HRT) is a "multicomponent behavioral treatment package originally developed to address a wide variety of repetitive behavior disorders".[1]
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Stimulus control

We refer to stimulus control when a discriminative stimulus changes the probability of a behavior (operant response). The discriminative stimulus comes to control behavior when it predicts something about the consequences of that behavior.
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A medication, medicine or drug is any substance or combination of substances administered to human beings or animals to treat or prevent disease; alternatively to assist in medical diagnosis.
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antidepressant, is a psychiatric medication or other substance (nutrient or herb) used for alleviating depression or dysthymia ('milder' depression). Drug groups known as MAOIs, tricyclics and SSRIs are particularly associated with the term.
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Trichotillomania
Classification & external resources

ICD-10 F63.3
ICD-9 312.39

DiseasesDB .htm 29681
MedlinePlus .htm 001517 |]
eMedicine derm/433   ped/2298

Trichotillomania
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OCD is an acronym that may stand for:

Medical uses

  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder, a psychological disorder
  • Osteochondritis dissecans, a painful joint condition in humans and animals
  • Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics

Computing


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Clomipramine (brand-name Anafranil®) is a tricyclic antidepressant. It was developed in the 1960s by the Swiss drug manufacturer Geigy (now known as Novartis) and has been in clinical use worldwide for decades.
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Fluoxetine hydrochloride (Prozac) is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class.

Fluoxetine is approved for the treatment of depression (including pediatric depression), obsessive-compulsive disorder (in both adult and pediatric
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Sertraline hydrochloride (Zoloft, Lustral) is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class. It was introduced to the market by Pfizer in 1991.
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Paroxetine (Paxil, Seroxat) is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant. It was released in 1992 by the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.
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Fluvoxamine (brand name as Luvox®, Faverin®, Fevarin® and Dumyrox®) is an antidepressant which functions pharmacologically as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor.
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Citalopram is an antidepressant drug used to treat depression associated with mood disorders. It is also used on occasion in the treatment of body dysmorphic disorder and anxiety.

Citalopram belongs to a class of drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).
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Escitalopram (Lexapro, Lexaprin, Cipralex, Sipralexa, Entact and Seroplex)[1] is an antidepressant of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class.
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Nefazodone hydrochloride (trade name Serzone) is an antidepressant drug marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb. Its sale was discontinued in 2003 in some countries, due to the small possibility of hepatic (liver) injury, which could lead to the need for a liver transplant, or even
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Venlafaxine (Effexor) is an antidepressant of the serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor (SNRI) class first introduced by Wyeth in 1993. It is prescribed for the treatment of clinical depression and anxiety disorders.
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The term antipsychotic is applied to a group of drugs used to treat psychosis. Common conditions with which antipsychotics might be used include schizophrenia, mania and delusional disorder.
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Risperidone (pronounced Ris-PER-ǐ-dōn and sold under the trade name Risperdal in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Portugal and several other
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Olanzapine (Zyprexa, Zyprexa Zydis, or in combination with fluoxetine Symbyax) is an atypical antipsychotic, approved by the FDA in 1996[1] for the treatment of schizophrenia, acute manic episodes in bipolar disorder, acute agitation associated with
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Quetiapine (IPA: [kwəˈtɑɪəˌpiːn], kwe-TYE-a-peen), marketed by AstraZeneca with the brand name Seroquel
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