Nose-picking and burping. Mucophagy, which is eating the extracted mucus, may be considered more taboo, and is sometimes portrayed in comedies. To be caught nose-picking may be considered humiliating. When nose picking becomes a body-focused repetitive behavior or obsessive–compulsive disorder it is known as rhinotillexomania. Most cases do not meet this pathological threshold. When it does, however, treatments similar to other BFRBs can be employed. The environment of the nose and the dried secretions removed contain many microorganisms. When a person is contagious with a cold, flu or other virus, it is important that hands or other objects used to remove
Biology of obsessive–compulsive disorder (ArKO), who lack a functional enzyme to convert androgens to estrogen. This ArKO knockout strategy has provided a model to examine the physiological impact of lower than normal amounts of estrogen. Studies with ArKO mice have been used to show that varying levels of estrogen affect the onset of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) behaviors. Lower amounts of estrogen are associated with an increase of OCD behaviors in males more than females. Variation in estrogen can lead to increased levels of OCD symptoms within women as well. The disorder itself has a later onset in women, and tends to show two