Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Dermatophagia (from Ancient Greek δέρμα — lit. skin and φαγεία lit. eating) or dermatodaxia (from δήξις, lit. biting) is a compulsion disorder of gnawing or biting one's own skin, most commonly at the fingers.
The fingers have been compulsively picked and chewed in someone with excoriation disorder and dermatophagia. Compulsive picking of the face using nail pliers and tweezers. Episodes of skin picking are often preceded or accompanied by tension, anxiety, or stress. In some cases, following picking, the affected person may feel depressed.
Nail biting, also known as onychophagy or onychophagia, is an oral compulsive habit of biting one's fingernails. It is sometimes described as a parafunctional activity, the common use of the mouth for an activity other than speaking, eating, or drinking.
The problem doesn't stop at nails, either. Habitual nail-biters often chomp on the skin around their fingers, too, leaving open cuts and abrasions that could easily pick up even more...
Onychotillomania is a compulsive behavior in which a person picks constantly at the nails or tries to tear them off. It is not the same as onychophagia , where the nails are bitten or chewed, or dermatillomania , where skin is bitten or scratched.
Paronychia is an inflammation of the skin around the nail, which can occur suddenly (acute), when it is usually due to the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, or gradually (chronic) when it is commonly caused by Candida albicans.
Fingernail-biting that develops into fingernail-eating is a form of pica. Other forms of pica include dermatophagia, and compulsion of eating one's own hair, which can form a hairball in the stomach. Left untreated, this can cause death due to excessive hair buildup.
Commonly, it manifests in humans as nail biting and hair pulling. In rarer circumstances, it manifests as serious self mutilative behavior such as biting off one's fingers. Autophagia affects both humans and non humans. Human autophagia typically occurs in parts of the body that are sensitive to pain, such as fingers.
In more severe cases, the motions may become harmful to the individual, and may involve things such as ripping, tearing, or chewing at the skin around one's fingernails, lips, or other body parts to the point of bleeding. Psychomotor agitation is typically found in various mental disorders, especially in psychotic and mood disorders.
Specialty. Dermatology. Periungual warts are warts that cluster around the fingernail or toenail. They appear as thickened, fissured cauliflower-like skin around the nail plate. Periungual warts often cause loss of the cuticle and paronychia. Nail biting increases susceptibility to these warts.