A case of clozapine-induced skin picking behaviour

Gen Psychiatr. 2018 Oct 25;31(2):e000012. doi: 10.1136/gpsych-2018-000012. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

There is some evidence consistently linking the occurrence of de novo obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with clozapine. This skin-picking disorder is also known as impulsive-compulsive disorder-unspecified which with an increasing convergence with OCD has been placed in the current Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders-fifth edition by American Psychiatric Association (DSM-5), in the category of the obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. To the best of our knowledge, there is no literature relating antipsychotics like clozapine with the occurrence of skin-picking behaviour. In this article, we present a case in whom skin-picking behaviour emerged during the upward dose titration of clozapine and was successfully treated with escitalopram.

Keywords: clozapine; obsessive-compulsive; skin picking.

Publication types

  • Case Reports