Research for effective evidence-based therapies continues for excoriation disorder with promising results. While the cause and mechanisms of excoriation disorder remain elusive, it is considered a body-focused repetitive behavior within the spectrum of obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD).

Summary of the points in the video How you care for your skin after you pick will determine how quickly and how well your skin heals. Neglecting these steps can result in extended healing time and damaged skin, including scabs, scarring, and permanent redness.

Habit reversal training for body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) includes improving awareness and self-monitoring, controlling stimuli, and creating competing responses. Stimulus control and competing responses sound very similar.

Using Competing Responses to Manage Skin Picking Competing responses are movements or activities that are incompatible with habitual  or automatic behaviors. In simple terms, if your hands are not available to use for picking at your skin, you won’t pick at your skin.

If you were to ask people who suffer from excoriation disorder whether hormonal changes influence the severity of their picking, they would likely say yes. Research supports this anecdotal evidence in several ways. First, the onset of excoriation disorder tends to occur during puberty.