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Amino Acid Decreases Skin-Picking Behaviors
The amino acidN-acetylcysteine significantly decreased skin-picking behaviors in people with excoriation disorder, according to a study in JAMA Psychiatry.
“Excoriation (skin-picking) disorder (SPD) is a disabling, underrecognized condition in which individuals repeatedly pick at their skin, leading to noticeable tissue damage,” researchers wrote. “To date, there has been no clearly effective pharmacologic or psychological treatment for SPD.”
Researchers conducted the study to investigate the effectiveness of N-acetylcysteine, which is believed to replenish extracellular glutamate concentration in the nucleus accumben.
Among 66 participants with SPD—mostly women in their mid-30s—35 were randomized to treatment with N-acetylcysteine (1,200-3,000 mg/day) and 31 were randomized to placebo. The intervention lasted 12 weeks.
When researchers compared baseline scores on the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale with scores at the intervention’s end, they found significant improvements among participants treated with N-acetylcysteine. Over the 12 weeks, the average score for the treatment group dropped from 18.9 to 11.5, compared with a 17.9-to-14.1 drop for the placebo group.
Similarly, the treatment group experienced a decrease on Clinical Global Impression-Severity Scale. The treatment group dropped from a score of 3.5 to 3, while the placebo group grew from a baseline score of 4 to 4.2 by the study’s end.
In all, 47% of participants receiving N-acetylcysteine were much or very much improved at 12 weeks. Just 19% of participants who received placebo experienced the same improvement. Psychosocial functioning between the groups remained similar, researchers reported.
“The glutamate system,” researchers concluded, “may prove a beneficial target in treating SPD and other compulsive behaviors.”
—Jolynn Tumolo
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