Is There Medication To Stop Nail Biting? (Onychophagia)

If you’re a chronic nail biter, you may have already tried various commercial products and strategies to quit. Perhaps you’re still searching for an answer and haven’t been able to kick the habit for good.

Why doesn’t one method to quit nail biting work is a question we asked on this website recently. In my experience, nail biting isn’t necessarily something people do for one specific reason. Many people bite or pick their nails even briefly from time to time. For others, we become chronic nail biters and have difficulty quitting or getting it under control.

Research has shown some evidence that several types of antidepressants may assist chronic and severe nail biters to quit the habit although test subjects tended to have other medical conditions that may have exacerbated the nail biting to begin with.

For severe nail biters, the habit can lead to injury to the fingers and nails as well as doing negative long term damage to your teeth and jaw among other things. If repeated attempts to quit nail biting don’t work, it may be possible for medication to assist.

Medication may help chronic nail biters

Research from Western University in Canada discussed the use of lithium monotherapy as a treatment for (among other things) chronic nail biting which is also known medically as onychophagia. In the case study that was discussed in the research, a long term nail biter of over 15 years who was also believed to suffer from depression and drug use was successfully treated for her nail biting with lithium.

The research suggested that more studies needed to be done but that:

…the drug choice for onychophagia should be informed by the nature of the comorbid psychiatric disorder.

Department of Psychiatry, Western University

In other words, when medication is used to treat chronic nail biting, the drug should be chosen in consideration of other medical conditions (ie. depression, drug use) that the patient experiences, if any.

Specific medication used to treat chronic nail biting

Fluoxetine has been used to treat self-mutilating habits such as nail biting and research from 2000 discussed how it has been used to decrease the desire for nail biting. For many chronic nail biters, we just can’t help ourselves and feel a strong desire to bite our nails even when we’d prefer not to.

Other research has discussed the use of anti-depresseant drugs like Clomipramine when prescribed for chronic nail biters. Some other studies have shown that while nail biting doesn’t cause mental health concerns, many chronic nail biters do experience mental health issues.

N-acetylcysteine is an antioxidant that has been used in young test subjects and appears to show a lengthening of fingernails in the short term which could lead to the conclusion that it may assist nail biters.

It should be noted that there has been evidence that some selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may exacerbate the impulse of impulse-related habits such as nail biting. Examples of SSRIs include popular antidepressants such as Prozac and Lexapro. So while some SSRI drugs may help with nail biting, some may do the opposite.

If you’re a chronic nail biter and all else has failed, it may be worth having a discussion with your doctor should you wish to explore other options including medication to help you.

Is biting your nails a mental disorder?

If you look at the study from Western University quoted above, the main subject is a woman who suffers from chronic nail biting and depression and who also has a history of illicit drug use. Studies have shown that while mental illness doesn’t necessarily lead to nail biting, nail biters have been shown to suffer from a higher rate of mental illness than non-nail biters.

Researchers have also over time suspected that nail biting may partially at least be an activity that occurs in families ie. heredity. Do you have a parent that bit their nails and if so, is it possible you “learned” the habit from them?

Other reports have shown that children who bite their nails have a higher level of emotional and behavioral problems than non-nail biting children. This perhaps leads credence to the argument that for many nail biters, certain triggers cause us to bite them as a coping mechanism.

All behavior serves a purpose, good or bad

Nail biting is considered a negative, dirty and destructive habit but for most of us it serves some sort of purpose. While many people may briefly bite or pick their nails during a period of stress or anxiety, some people might just notice a hang nail or loose nail and bite it off to get rid of it.

For long term nail biters though, it’s more of an ingrained habit and a behavior that we often do to deal with something in our life at the particular moment:

Stress, anxiety, boredom, frustration, anger and hunger are just a few.

By biting or picking our nails, it helps us to potentially do a number of things. It:

• is calming and self-soothing when we need it.
• keeps our hands occupied when we’re bored or otherwise frustrated.
• provides stimulation and keeps our hands busy.
• helps us deal with perfectionism which some researchers believe is why many people bite their nails in the first place.

Our behaviors might be due to one specific reason or several of them and nail biting may be among those reasons.

What is the best product to stop nail biting?

At the end of the day, your specific situation matters as does your personal reason(s) for nail biting. For me, my nail biting habit was never to the point of causing myself physical pain. I hated the feeling of biting a nail so short that it hurt for a few days afterwards. Other nail biters may not care.

I also didn’t have any extenuating circumstances or diagnosed illness or issue that I was aware of. I don’t think I was ever a candidate for any sort of medication for my nail biting.

I also never seriously tried to quit for more than a few days here and there and other than trying bitter nail polish once as a child, never even considered purchasing an anti-nail biting product of any kind.

For average nail biters like me who just do it for whatever reason, quitting is most likely a case of willpower and just doing it. If you want to quit nail biting, you really need to just do it. You may require some help but medication will tend to be used only in very extreme cases and according to the research, in cases where other medical conditions apply.

Check out my full nail biting case study to get some ideas on what I noticed regarding my nail biting and how I finally got it under control without the use of medication or products.