Bite Your Nails? You Might Have an Official Disorder

Severe cases expected to be categorized as OCD
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 1, 2012 4:56 PM CDT
Bite Your Nails? You Might Have an Official Disorder
   (Shutterstock)

Those who can't stop biting their nails might soon be able to lay claim to an official-sounding excuse: They have obsessive-compulsive disorder. The Health on Today blog reports that the American Psychiatric Association plans to classify severe cases under the OCD label when the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is updated next year. Casual chomping gets a pass, but those who "have bitten so much that they are getting infections" or have limited the use of their hands qualify, explains a psychiatrist. (More Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders stories.)

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