Onychotillomania is an obsessive-compulsive disorder marked by the picking at or pulling out of one 's fingernails or toenails. There are many people who struggle with this condition, some extreme while others experience very mild forms. In the most extreme forms people completely rip out their fingernails and toenails from their fingers and toes. The more mild cases are people picking either at the nail itself or the skin surrounding the nail. Onychotillomania falls into the same categories of other picking disorders such as trichotillomania and dermatillomania. A case study conducted by Snorrason and Woods (2014), looked at a 37 year-old adult male with a chronic nail and skin picking habit treated with acceptance-enhanced behavior therapy.
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This behavior can be defined as picking and biting the cuticles, and picking and biting nails. The most severe behavior that was looking to be eliminated is biting and picking until bleeding. The method used was a simple A-B research design. The behavior analysis lasted one week and the modification procedure lasted three weeks. The primary method that was used was antecedent control and positive reinforcement in a variable ratio schedule. During the one week functional analysis period, the behavior was observed on average about 60 minutes per day (see Appendix A). The primary antecedents in the nail pick and biting behavior were observed to be, during stressful times, during times of boredom, when in class, while stuck in traffic or while watching Netflix or tv. The method of preventing the nail and skin picking/biting, was substituting the pick/biting behavior for a squeezing a stress ball made from a balloon and flower. This was the antecedent control method, in times that picking and biting normally occurred, a stress ball was introduced. The use of positive reinforcement was implemented weekly, the first week following the functional analysis, the goal was two days without picking. Following the two days without picking or biting, a reward of frozen yogurt was available. The second week the goal was four days without picking, following four days without picking, the reward was going out to pizza with friends. Finally the last week the goal was a whole week without picking, upon completion of a whole week a reward the reward was going out to mexican food with friends. There was also social evaluation and support implemented in the behavior modification process, the friend were aware of the goal and would not allow for the reward without completion of the
This behavior can be defined as picking and biting the cuticles, and picking and biting nails. The most severe behavior that was looking to be eliminated is biting and picking until bleeding. The method used was a simple A-B research design. The behavior analysis lasted one week and the modification procedure lasted three weeks. The primary method that was used was antecedent control and positive reinforcement in a variable ratio schedule. During the one week functional analysis period, the behavior was observed on average about 60 minutes per day (see Appendix A). The primary antecedents in the nail pick and biting behavior were observed to be, during stressful times, during times of boredom, when in class, while stuck in traffic or while watching Netflix or tv. The method of preventing the nail and skin picking/biting, was substituting the pick/biting behavior for a squeezing a stress ball made from a balloon and flower. This was the antecedent control method, in times that picking and biting normally occurred, a stress ball was introduced. The use of positive reinforcement was implemented weekly, the first week following the functional analysis, the goal was two days without picking. Following the two days without picking or biting, a reward of frozen yogurt was available. The second week the goal was four days without picking, following four days without picking, the reward was going out to pizza with friends. Finally the last week the goal was a whole week without picking, upon completion of a whole week a reward the reward was going out to mexican food with friends. There was also social evaluation and support implemented in the behavior modification process, the friend were aware of the goal and would not allow for the reward without completion of the