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stereotypy/habit disorder
Intentional & repetitive behaviors that serve no constructive or socially acceptable purpose.
Etiology:
1) severe or profound mental retardation
2) Lesch-Nyhan syndrome
3) temporal lobe epilepsy
4) postencephalitic syndrome
5) schizophrenia
6) obsessive-compulsive disorder
7) amphetamines
Epidemiology:
- 10-23% of institutionalized patients with mental retardation
Clinical manifestations:
1) intentional, repetitive, non-functional behaviors*
2) disturbance either causes self-injury or markedly interferes with normal activities*
3) behaviors frequently performed in a rhythmic fashion
4) scope of stereotypic behaviors
a) body rocking
b) head-banging
c) hitting or biting of one's own body
- face-slapping
- hand-biting
d) skin picking or scratching
e) teeth grinding (bruxism)
f) body manipulations
- nose-picking
- hair-pulling
- eye-poking
- anus-poking
g) non-communicative
h) repetitive vocalizations
i) breath-holding
j) hyperventilation
k) aerophagia
* DSM-IV diagnostic criteria
Management:
- selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI)
General
psychiatric disease; behavioral disorder
chronic mental disorder
References
- DSM-IIIR
- DSM-IV-TR