Oxford will host the first conference of its kind into body-focused repetitive behaviours (BFRBs) such as hair pulling and skin picking next month.
It comes just over a year after the organiser Professor Clare Mackay first spoke publicly about her experience of hair pulling disorder, also known as trichotillomania, which she has experienced for four decades.
Professor Mackay, who is Professor of Imaging Neuroscience in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford is working with the charitable organisation Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviours UK and Ireland to organise the conference.
The event, taking place on September 13th and 14th, is unique in not only bringing together academics from a range of disciplines to share research and ideas, but will also have a community-focused day with people with lived experience of these conditions.
Professor Mackay said: “Although I have spent 30 years researching various neurological and psychiatric conditions, it was only last year that I started on my journey exploring the one that has been with me all along.
“Once I decided to talk about it, I felt the lifting of the sense of shame I had felt for so long. Since then I have been incredibly motivated by the hundreds of messages I have had from others who experience similar conditions.
“Despite millions of people being affected in this country alone, there is very little research into body-focused repetitive disorders, which is something that urgently needs addressing.
“Working alongside a team here at Oxford, I have now begun to undertake research into the conditions, and that is also why we are bringing together some of the leading researchers across the world for this conference to start making some progress in this field.”
Professor Mackay’s research is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (OH BRC) Mental Health in Development Theme.
It is estimated around 1.1. million people experience hair-pulling disorder, with the majority never getting help. Meanwhile, around 4 million people in the UK and Ireland experience body-focused repetitive behaviours more broadly, which would also include an uncontrollable urge to pull, pick, scratch, cut or bite one’s own skin and nails.
Dr Bridget Bradley, co-founder and Chair of BFRB UK & Ireland said: “People with BFRBs often experience high levels of emotional distress as a result of these behaviours, which can impact every-day life, such as causing avoidance and disruption at work, at school and socially as well as causing damage to the body. They are still incredibly stigmatised and misunderstood.
“We hope that by enabling this community of people to come together we can both help people understand more about why they experience urges to pick, pull or bite, and to feel part of a community, so that they know that they’re not alone.”
The academic research symposium will take place at Oxford University Museum of Natural History on Friday, September 13th. The community day will take place on Saturday, September 14th at the Department of Psychiatry at Oxford.
All information about the conference can be found on our website.
You can watch an interview with Prof MacKay on BBC South today.
