Decision-making performance in Trichotillomania and skin picking disorder

Abstract Neuropsychological studies have revealed impairments in various cognitive areas in trichotillomania (TTM) and skin picking disorder (SPD). However, there are very few studies investigating decision-making in TTM, and no studies examining decision-making in SPD. In this study, the decision-making of groups of patients with TTM and SPD were examined and the findings were compared with a healthy control (HC) group. The study was conducted with 121 participants, 32 of whom had TTM, 43 had SPD, and 46 were HCs. A Sociodemographic Data Form, the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAE), Clinical Global Impression (CGI), Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-Short Form (BIS-15), and Iowa Gambling Test (IGT) were administered to the participants. The patients with TTM performed worse than the HCs in the gambling task. Patients with TTM made more choices from disadvantaged and risky decks than HCs. The IGT-4 and IGT-Total score performances of patients with TTM were significantly worse than those of the HCs. The decision-making performance of patients with SPD was similar to HCs. This study showed that decision-making is impaired in patients with TTM. This impairment suggests that it may be related to being prone to risk-taking behavior under uncertainty and not learning from feedback.