What is Trichodynia, Symptoms

The Trichodynia or Trichodynia is the process commonly known as hair pain or scalp pain. It is a discomfort that occurs without warning and is usually quite bothersome.

The pain often appears as intense itching, reaching phases of burning, sharp pricks in localized areas, or extensive areas of the scalp.

It affects both men and women and there is no defined age to notice its symptoms, although it is more common in young people.

What are the causes of Trichodynia

The causes of Trichodynia are unknown, although recent medical studies point to psychosomatic factors, work and social stress, depression, anxiety, and derivatives of mental illnesses that alter the normal functioning of the human nervous system.

Currently, only a few studies on Trichodynia are known, and some of them show clues about its psychosomatic origin. According to the latest theories, Trichodynia or Trichodynia could be caused by the nerve endings that make up the hair follicles of the scalp. These would send pain messages to the brain when they lack hair. Something similar to phantom pain due to the loss of a limb.

Another theory of Trichodynia is that some people have very sensitive nerves in their scalp. This condition is called ponytail syndrome, although the name can be misleading since there is another pathology with the same name that has nothing to do with it, so the best way to refer to scalp pain is by the name Trichodynia.

Unfortunately, this is a field that still needs further study to be able to firmly establish its causes as well as its possible treatments. But what is clear is that when it appears, it is very bothersome, and the person suffering from Trichodynia thinks they have a serious scalp disease. Fortunately, the pain does not indicate the beginning of hair loss or a warning of baldness. It comes and goes but does not indicate that hair loss will occur.

In patients with hair loss, it has been observed that when the hair loss subsides, the painful episodes of the scalp also stop. So it may be related, but it does not indicate that it is the cause of any type of alopecia.

Almost everyone has experienced similar discomfort at some point in their lives, but there are occasions when some individuals affected by a type of alopecia experience the symptoms of Trichodynia. These patients have a higher frequency of painful episodes as well as the mentioned main characteristic called scalp pain.

Studies on Trichodynia

In the few studies conducted under medical conditions of hair loss, patients reported feeling pain in the scalp.

These studies tried to relate hair loss to the frequency of painful episodes. Of the total of 403 patients examined, 20% of women with female alopecia and 9% of men with male alopecia reported suffering from hair pain. The study’s conclusions related that hair loss due to different scalp diseases affected patients with Trichodynia or scalp pain, but these, far from being able to be stated as the causes, leave open other adjacent causes such as anxiety generated by hair loss.

The higher prevalence of Trichodynia in women may be due, according to the studies themselves, to a greater apprehension by the female sex when suffering from alopecia, as socially women without hair are less tolerated.