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 18 May 2008 01:13 BST

Genetic basis for 'pulling your hair out' revealed

Wednesday, 27 Sep 2006 08:09
About four per cent of people suffer from the condition

Health In Focus 

Scientists believe they have identified the genetic mutations that lead people to suffer from a condition that causes them to compulsively pull their hair.

The research team at the US-based Duke University medical centre say that the detection of mutations in the gene SLITKR1 may play an important role in helping to understand how mental disorders such as trichotillomania are rooted in a person's genes.

Between three and five per cent of the population are affected by the condition, the study's authors write, which often leaves sufferers with "noticeable hair loss of patches of baldness".

But many people attempt to cover up evidence of the relatively unknown disorder.

"As a result, the disorder often goes undiagnosed and untreated," researchers say.

Trichotillomania often goes hand in hand with other psychiatric conditions like anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder and Tourette's syndrome.

Although the research team admits that its findings relate only to small proportion of trichotillomania suffers, they contend that the study could "validate a biological basis for mental illnesses".

"Such illnesses have long been blamed on a person's upbringing or life experiences," said lead study investigator Stephan Zuchner, assistant professor of psychiatry at Duke University for human genetics.

"Society still holds negative perceptions about psychiatric conditions such as trichotillomania. But, if we can show they have a genetic origin, we can improve diagnosis, develop new therapies and reduce the stereotypes associated with mental illness," the professor added.

The university's findings on trichotillomania, for which there is no available treatment, are published in the Molecular Psychiatry journal.End of story

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