Trichotillomania (TTM) is currently classified as an impulse disorder in the DSM-IV, but there is a growing consensus amongst researchers that trichotillomania should be placed on the putative QCD-related disorders spectrum. QCD and TTM have been compared in many fields including neurobiology, phenomenology and epidemiology. Studies of cognition in QCD and TTM typically focus on automatic thoughts and underlying assumptions and there is a paucity of research into enduring cognitive structures, or schemas, associated with the two disorders. This thesis reviews the available evidence regarding the relationship between QCD and TTM. The Young Schema Questionnaire (YSQ) was used to measure 15 maladaptive schemas in 96 QCD patients, 34 TTM patients, and 94 controls. In the comparison between QCD and TTM it was found that depression has a major impact on the profile of schemas in QCD. When controlling for depression a few differences in schema profile were found between QCD and TTM, though the schema enmeshment emerged as significant in both disorders. These findings are discussed in the light of the debate around the classification of trichotillomania in the psychiatric nomenclature.

Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.