Nail biting
Medical condition / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Nail biting, also known as onychophagy or onychophagia, is an oral compulsive habit of biting one's fingernails. It is sometimes described as a parafunctional activity, the common use of the mouth for an activity other than speaking, eating, or drinking.
Nail biting | |
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Fingers of a nail-biter. | |
Specialty | Pediatrics, psychiatry |
Risk factors | Damaged cuticles, damaged nails, hangnails, etc. |
Nail biting is very common, especially amongst children. 25–35 percent of children bite nails. More pathological forms of nails biting are considered an impulse control disorder in the DSM-IV-R and are classified under obsessive-compulsive and related disorders in the DSM-5. The ICD-10 classifies the practice as "other specified behavioral and emotional disorders with onset usually occurring in childhood and adolescence".[1] However, not all nail biting is pathological, and the difference between harmful obsession and normal behavior is not always clear.[2] The earliest reference to nail biting as a symptom of anxiety was in the late sixteenth century in France.[3]