Topiramate in skin picking disorder

• Register: ISRCTN
• Last refreshed on: 20 February 2017
• Main ID: ISRCTN15791118
• Date of registration: 23/12/2016
• Prospective Registration: No
• Primary sponsor: Jafferany Psychiatric Services
• Public title: Topiramate in skin picking disorder
• Scientific title: A pilot study of the use of topiramate in skin picking disorder
• Date of first enrolment: 01/12/2013
• Target sample size: 20
• Recruitment status: Completed
• URL: http://isrctn.com/ISRCTN15791118
• Study type: Interventional
• Study design: Open-label flexible-dose trial (Treatment)
• Phase: Not Applicable

Countries of recruitment

Pakistan, United States of America

Contacts

• Name: Mohammad Jafferany

Key inclusion & exclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria: 1. Recurrent skin picking resulting in skin lesions
2. Repeated attempts to decrease or stop skin picking
3. The skin picking causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning
4. The skin picking is not attributable to the physiological effects of a substance/another medical condition
5. The skin picking is not better explained by symptoms of another mental disorder
6. Age 18-60 years
Exclusion criteria: 1. Chronic unstable medical illness
2. Pregnancy or lactation
3. Being on other psychotropic medications
4. Current substance abuse
5. Psychotherapy in the last six weeks prior to commencing the study

Age minimum:
Age maximum:
Gender: Both

Health Condition(s) or Problem(s) studied

Skin picking disorder
Mental and Behavioural Disorders

Intervention(s)

Patients with skin picking will be enrolled in the study based upon diagnostic criteria by DSM 5 and followed for a 12-week period in an open label method. Patients will be started on 25mg topiramate once a day for during the first week. Monitoring of side effects will be done during this first week and if a patient tolerated the medication, the dose of topiramate will be increased to 25mg twice a day during the second week. Next month the dose will be increased to 50mg twice a day and third month 100mg twice a day. If the desired effect was obtained at a lower dose, such dose will be maintained. They will be seen weekly for two weeks and every two weeks for the remainder of the 12 weeks open label study. Adjusting the dose of their topiramate as clinically indicated will be the main intervention that patients are exposed to.

Patients will be followed up at 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 8 weeks and 12 weeks. Primary outcome measure that will be assessed include the mean time spent picking per day as each participant will be asked to keep a diary of time spent picking each day. Secondary outcomes will be evaluated using SPS-Y-BCOS, skin picking scale, Beck anxiety inventory, Beck depression inventory, CGI-severity and CGI-improvement.

Primary Outcome(s)

Mean time spent picking per day, measured using participant diaries at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 weeks

Secondary Outcome(s)

1. Skin picking, obsessions and compulsions are measured using SPS-Y-BCOS at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 weeks
2. Skin picking frequency is measured using the skin picking scale at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 weeks
3. Anxiety is measured using the Beck anxiety inventory at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 weeks
4. Depression is measured using the Beck depression inventory at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 weeks
5. Severity is measured using the CGI-severity at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 weeks
6. Improvement in clinical condition is measured using the CGI-improvement at 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 weeks

Secondary ID(s)

Jaffpsych001

Source(s) of Monetary Support

Jafferany Psychiatric Services