| dc.description.abstract | Body focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) such as hair pulling, skin picking, and nail biting
affect almost 4% of the general population (Rasmussen & Eisen, 1992), but the factors that
predispose individuals to these behaviors are poorly understood. BFRBs are associated with
maladaptive emotional regulation (Diefenbach, Tolin, Meunier, & Worhunsky, 2008; Roberts,
O’Connor, & Bélanger, 2013), whereby symptoms serve to temporarily attenuate aversive
affective experiences. One particular mechanism through which emotion dysregulation may
manifest in persons with BFRBs is anxiety sensitivity, which is defined as the fear of one’s own
experiences (Reiss and McNally, 1985; Teng, Woods, Twohig, & Marcks, 2002). The current
study aimed to determine whether anxiety sensitivity is elevated among adults with BFRBs
compared to adults without BFRBs, and whether anxiety sensitivity severity is associated with
BFRB symptom severity. Furthermore, anxiety sensitivity levels between different forms of
BFRBs will be explored. Participants were recruited via BFRB patient advocacy websites and
mailing lists (e.g. the Trichotillomania Learning Center; www.tlc.org) and completed online self-
report surveys. Results indicated that clinical BFRBs had higher AS than the general population
and that there were no significant differences in AS between persons with ExD and TTM. Future
research should look into the underlying mechanisms of AS in BFRBs and how to treat it. | en |
