Abstract

Trichotillomania is a disorder that causes psycho-physical problems. However, there are various ways to treat this disorder. The present study aimed to compare effectiveness of group therapy combination of habit reversal training and acceptance and commitment based therapy, and pharmacotherapy in reducing anxiety and depression in patients with trichotillomania. This study was quasi-experimental with pre-test, post-test and control group. For this purpose, 18 individuals who had received diagnosis of trichotillomania were selected through targeted sampling method and were randomly divided into two experimental and one control groups. All three groups completed the Massachusetts General Hospital Hairpulling Scale, Beck Depression Questionnaire, and Beck Anxiety Questionnaire at pre-test and post-test stages. Participants in psychotherapy group attended 10 sessions of group therapy. The pharmacotherapy group also received citalopram 40 mg daily, and the control group received no treatment at this stage. SPSS-16 software and univariate covariance analysis test were used for data analysis. The results of univariate covariance analysis showed a significant difference in trichotillomania symptoms (F=75.933) between psychotherapy group, pharmacotherapy group and control group at 0.05 level. Reduction of anxiety and depression in psychotherapy group was significantly higher than pharmacotherapy and control groups. The study results showed that group therapy combination of habit reversal training and acceptance and commitment based therapy can be used as a more effective method than pharmacotherapy‎.