Facilitated attentional disengagement from hair-related cues among individuals diagnosed with trichotillomania: An investigation based on the exogenous cueing paradigm

Trichotillomania (TTM) is a debilitating condition characterized by recurrent hair pulling that results in noticeable hair loss and significant functional impairment. One potentially important but unstudied area of research is biased attentional processing among individuals with TTM. This study sought to examine the nature of attentional processing towards hair cues among individuals with TTM. Individuals with TTM (n=13) and non-clinical individuals without TTM (n=20) were compared, using an exogenous cueing task that presented hair cues, general threat cues, and neutral cues at three varying stimulus durations (i.e., 250 ms, 500 ms, and 1500 ms). Results revealed that individuals with TTM showed enhanced attentional disengagement from hair cues at later stages of attentional processing (i.e., 1500 ms), but not at earlier stages of attentional processing (i.e., 250 ms and 500 ms). Further, the magnitude of attentional avoidance from hair cues was significantly associated with TTM severity, but not with the level of general depression and anxiety. TTM seems to be characterized by attentional avoidance from hair cues, which may reflect the individual's effort to down-regulate negative emotions associated with the pulling-related cues. Further research in this area is expected to add to an understanding of TTM's maintaining factors and contribute to developing effective cognitive interventions for this disorder.

► Individuals with trichotillomania show enhanced attentional disengagement from hair cues.
► Such attentional avoidance is significantly associated with the severity of hair pulling.
► General negative emotions do not explain attentional avoidance from hair cues in trichotillomania.
► Individuals with trichotillomania may attempt to down-regulate negative emotions by avoiding pulling-related cues.