A perversion of food addictions (picacism, allotriophagy) is an uncontrolled desire by the patient to eat earth, clay, chalk, wood, plastic, dough, raw meat, and other inedible or inedible substances and objects. The disorder is detected during pregnancy, deficiency states, stress, mental illness. To establish the cause of allotriophagy, laboratory methods of research, psychological counseling, and examination by a psychiatrist are recommended. In the treatment, vitamin and mineral preparations, sedatives and psychotropic drugs are used.
The disorder occurs in 1% of adults, predominantly women of childbearing age, in 10-15% of children and adolescents. More often, people living in economically undeveloped regions with a low social status suffer from a violation of food habits. Perversions of food preferences do not include cases of eating inedible objects by children out of curiosity, regular use of inedible substances in extreme conditions, and specific traditions of national cuisines.
In adult women, perversions of taste preferences are most often detected in the gestational period. Usually, at first, a pregnant woman changes her eating habits against the background of hormonal changes: she feels a desire to eat spicy and salty foods, sweets, and mix incompatible foods with each other. As the child grows and actively consumes essential nutrients, the expectant mother develops various deficient conditions.
It is the insufficient content of the necessary microelements in the body that causes the pregnant woman to desire to eat earth, chalk, soap, ice, fresh dough, and sometimes raw meat or fish. A feature of the perversion of food addictions during gestation is the preservation by a woman of conscious control over behavior. For fear of harming the baby, pregnant women refrain from consuming potentially dangerous ingredients despite strong cravings.
A common cause of the disorder is insufficient intake or absorption of certain vitamins and microelements by the body. In deficient states, food perversions are combined with other signs of vitamin and mineral deficiency - general malaise, specific skin changes, decreased immunity, and less often serve as the only symptom of the disease. Craving for inedible substances occurs in pathologies such as:
The cause of picacism can be a deficiency of vitamins and trace elements.
Perversions of eating habits as one of the leading signs of the disease appear in girls of puberty. They are preceded by non-specific symptoms in the form of fatigue, lethargy, constant drowsiness, palpitations, tinnitus. As juvenile chlorosis progresses, pica chlorotica appears - an uncontrollable craving for earth. The symptom is accompanied by perversions of smell, specific "alabaster" pallor of the skin, dyspepsia, oligo- and amenorrhea.
In adults, a violation of taste preferences can be the result of acute and chronic stress. Eating inedible contributes to the increase in energy costs and the consumption of nutrients necessary to maintain a stressful metabolism. A person experiences indomitable hunger, in addition to ordinary food, he begins to eat chalk, toothpaste, earth. Some patients develop obsessive-compulsive disorder with biting and eating hair, nails, pieces of skin.
In childhood, the key reasons for the perversion of taste habits are insufficient attention from parents, bullying by peers, excessive physical or intellectual stress, moving the family to a new place. The child becomes sullen, withdrawn, whiny or irritable. To calm down or attract the attention of adults, such children begin to chew and swallow paper, sand, stones, chalk, soap.
Taste perversions in people with mental disorders indicate a severe course of the disease, a poor prognosis, and deep maladaptation. Often, eating inedible ingredients and objects is persistent, constant and extremely difficult to correct. Often, attempts by others to prevent disturbed eating behavior cause aggression on the part of the patient. Common psychiatric causes of pica:
Taking into account the age, the primary examination of patients with a revealed change in taste preferences without signs of mental disorders is carried out by general practitioners or pediatricians. In the presence of explicit psychopathology, a psychiatrist conducts a diagnostic search. To clarify the cause of perversion of eating behavior, the following examination methods are used:
Consultation with a psychologist is necessary to identify the psychological causes of the disorder
For pregnant women with mild mineral deficiencies and minor changes in dietary habits, it is enough to adjust the diet. It is recommended to eat foods containing iron, calcium, zinc - meat, cottage cheese, hard cheeses, wheat bran, pine nuts. Usually, after childbirth in such patients, the manifestations of picacism stop on their own.
Before establishing the cause of the disorder with a persistent violation of food cravings, especially eating potentially toxic objects and chemical compounds, it is important to provide care for the patient and, if possible, stop his attempts to consume inedible. If we are talking about a child, you should clean the space in the house as much as possible from dangerous components. In any case, you must urgently seek medical help.
Rational, behavioral and family psychotherapy is the leading method of treatment for patients in whom perversions of food addictions are associated with psychological problems and supervalues. Patients with deficient conditions due to celiac disease are prescribed a strict gluten-free diet for life. When choosing a drug for drug correction, the reasons that provoked the disorder are taken into account. The treatment regimen may include: