Comments on Pulling hair to feel better: Emotion regulation in trichotillomania

Evan commented on 'Pulling hair to feel better: Emotion regulation in trichotillomania'

2010-02-10T02:35:03Z

Hey Mike,
Just wanted to follow up with you on this. My coworker did give me an article, however, it really is lacking in statistical significance. For instance, the study utilizes 3 participants which doesn't speak very highly of its power. Regardless, I think it still presented some interesting findings.

In case you get some free time (haha, I don't even know what that phrase means anymore :)

Rapp, J. T., Miltenberger, R. G., Long, E. S., Elliott, A. J., & Lumley, V. A. (1998). Simplified habit reversal treatment for chronic hair pulling in three adolescents: A clinical replication with direct observation. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 31, 299-302.

Michael and Joye Anestis commented on 'Pulling hair to feel better: Emotion regulation in trichotillomania'

2010-01-09T19:02:54Z

Evan -

I am not familiar with habit reversal training, but I'll gladly read up about it if there is any published research on the approach. Have you found any since you made this comment?

- Mike Anestis

Evan Burton commented on 'Pulling hair to feel better: Emotion regulation in trichotillomania'

2010-01-04T22:52:07Z

I was just speaking with a coworker about Habit Reversal Training to be used in the treatment of Trichotillomania. Have you heard of this? Is there any empirical support for the intervention? I haven't had a chance to read up on it, but my coworker was explaining the method to me briefly. It sounds almost as if a behavioral substitution.

Evan Burton commented on 'Pulling hair to feel better: Emotion regulation in trichotillomania'

2009-07-31T21:22:06Z

Speaking of memory, I and a coworker are currently working with children diagnosed with ADHD. Interestingly, her clients (siblings) have average to above average memory recall, however, my client seems to be unable to remember anything. I apologize if you have already posted an article addressing this issue, but I find this an interesting topic of discussion.

I appreciate the references, and that must be pretty exciting getting the opportunity to work with such interesting research! I am hoping to designate time on a regular basis to reading and commenting on articles. It is easy to take such a great resource for granted, but I really am thankful to have such great discussion and information topic so close at hand.

Mike Anestis commented on 'Pulling hair to feel better: Emotion regulation in trichotillomania'

2009-07-31T15:47:50Z

Evan -

Good question - I don't think I phrased my point clearly in the actual article. Asking a client how they feel is definitely valid. The problem is when we ask them to think back and report how they felt in prior days or to report, on average, what their shifting emotions were in discrete periods of time with respect to a particular behavior. The reason for this is simply the limitations of our memories. We tend to make a lot of errors when try to do this.

If you'd like to read more about a better approach - ecological momentary assessment (EMA) - I highly recommend starting by reading some of the work of Steve Wonderlich, Ross Crosby, Scott Engel, and James Mitchell. They and several other colleagues are phenomenal researchers who look at emotions, particularly in eating disorders and who use very cool methods not only for obtaining data on past emotional experiences, but also for comparing EMA and retrospective self-reports. I am lucky enough to be working with them on a paper right now that does this and the clear conclusion is that you get more accurate, more useful information when you compile data over time then when you simply ask folks to remember what happened.

Glad to see you back in the comment section - I hope you are able to find some time to keep commenting because you ask great questions that actually help me to think of future articles.

Evan Burton commented on 'Pulling hair to feel better: Emotion regulation in trichotillomania'

2009-07-29T15:54:05Z

I think your suggestion of modeling might be the best explanation. Either the client would get the idea from their peers or their family. I have a client that is showing symptoms of the disorder, and I have been thinking about effective treatments for a few weeks. I am interested to learn more about why simply asking the client to report how they are feeling would not be a valid measure on factors maintaining the behavior. I appreciate the relevancy of this article and I will be exploring DBT and ACT more in depth.