The Health Diva

The BBC News (7/7) reports that, according to a study published in the July issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, “a simple supplement” containing the amino acid N-acetylcysteine “could help treat people with” trichotillomania, “an impulse disorder that manifests in hair-tearing.” People who suffer from trichotillomania have “uncontrollable urges to pluck the hair of the scalp and even eyebrows and lashes, often to the point of baldness.”

For the study, researchers from the University of Minnesota School of Medicine asked a “group of 50 people with trichotillomania…to take part in a 12-week trial of the pill containing the amino acid N-acetylcysteine. Half of the participants “were given the treatment, and the other half a dummy pill.” At study end, the team found that “patients taking the active medication had significantly greater reductions in hair-pulling symptoms than those taking placebo”. Reuters (7/7, Stern) explains that study participants received a starting dose of 1,200 milligrams of N-acetylcysteine daily, which was doubled after a period of six weeks if no improvement took place. At the end of the study, 56 percent of the participants were considered to have had improvement in their condition, compared to the 16 percent of participants taking placebo. Forty-four percent of the participants did not respond to N-acetylcysteine. (more…)