Gloves for pickers and pullers

Article Outline

• References
• Copyright

To the Editor:

I read with interest the article by Hautmann et al1 on trichotillomania. I was especially interested in the information on habit control because I use some of the same techniques for treating my patients with habit scratching or picking.

Pickers and excoriators are frequently helped by wearing loose gloves. Gloves limit their ability to damage the skin. I recommended that they find gloves one size too large. They wear the gloves when in a setting where most of their picking and excoriating occurs. If, for example, the habit occurs when in the car, they wear driving gloves. Glove wearing is especially helpful for head scratchers because the bulky fabric at the end of the glove fingers limits penetration through hair.

Back to Article Outline

References 

1. Hautmann G, Hercogova J, Lotti T. Trichotillomania. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2002;46:807–821
   • View In Article
   • Abstract
   • Full Text
   • Full-Text PDF (1479 KB)
   • CrossRef