THE EFFICACY OF AN INTERNET-BASED COMPREHENSIVE BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTION FOR THE TREATMENT OF TRICHOTILLOMANIA

In an effort to enhance trichotillomania (TTM) treatment accessibility an Internet-based self-help program--StopPulling.com--was developed based on the Comprehensive Behavioral (ComB) model of TTM. This study conducted the first randomized controlled trial of StopPulling.com with sixty adults with TTM. This study also investigated the mechanism of change involved in the ComB model by examining whether selective matching of coping strategies to hairpulling modalities (i.e., cognitive, affective, motoric, sensory, and environmental) predicted treatment outcome. It was expected that participants would experience significantly greater decreases in TTM severity and associated functional impairment after ten weeks of StopPulling.com than after ten weeks of a waitlist condition. Although participants experienced significant reductions in TTM severity and associated impairment over the course of ten weeks, there were no significant differences in these reductions between participants who received ten weeks of StopPulling.com and those who received ten weeks of the waitlist condition. It was also expected that participants with the highest modality-strategy match scores would experience the greatest reductions in TTM severity and associated impairment. However, the average modality-strategy match score was not significantly correlated with functional impairment nor any measures of TTM severity.