Pica Disorder Causes & Risk Factors - OmniMedicalSearch.com

Conditions & Diseases: Eating & Weight Disorders

Pica Disorder

Pica Causes and Risk Factors

Although no one knows exactly what causes the disorder and what are the exact risk factors that predispose a person towards developing pica, there are several hypothesis attempts to explain this phenomenon.

One of the most common assumptions is that pica is caused by nutritional deficiencies. Although the empirical data supporting this hypothesis is absent, the disorder has been associated with deficiency of iron, calcium, zinc, and nutrients such as niacin, vitamin C and D, and thiamine. Malnutrition was also identified in most cases of pica. Malnutrition is common among individuals that eat clay, and although medical tests were able to identify the iron deficiency, it is not clear whether pica was prompted by the deficiency or the inhibition of iron absorption caused by the iron ingestion led to the deficiency. However, many clinical reports reveal that iron supplementation is efficient in abolishing the food and non-food pica associated with an iron deficiency state.

Iron deficiency was also associated with eating match heads, raw potatoes, and ice. Recent studies suggest that pica and iron deficiency has been associated with a decreased activity of the dopamine system in the brain (decreased dopamine D2 receptors). Dopamine is both a hormone and a neurotransmitter that helps to relay the transmission of nerve impulses in between nerve cells. "Systematic iron deficiency results in no predictable alteration of iron-dependent enzymes or changes in CNS (central nervous system) catechol neurotransmitter metabolites." (3)

Researchers believe that some cultural and familial factors can also contribute the disorder, but this supposition requires more research before reaching a definite conclusion. In some cultures and societies the ingestion of non-nutritive food items such as clay or soil is culturally based and accepted. For example, in Uganda soil is available for purchase for the purpose of being ingested. In some societies (such as endemic sedentary aborigines from Australia or in Turkey) clay is seen as a fertility food therefore ingested to enhance a woman's fertility. Similar beliefs are shared in the black culture usually in Africa and Southern United States that different types of clay would enhance childbearing. In such societies, parents might proactively teach their children that is normal to eat such items or other nonfood substances.

It was suggested that stress associated with traumatic events is linked to pica disorder. Some of the traumatic events common in individuals with pica include maternal deprivation, parental separation or neglect, child abuse, disorganize family structure and poor parent-child interaction.

Pica seems to be linked to low socioeconomic status. It is believed that malnutrition and hunger can lead to pica. The ingestion of paint and paint chips is more common among children from a low socioeconomic background and is associated with poor parental supervision and oral overstimulation.

In individuals with mental retardation, the presence of pica have been explained as the result of the child's inability to distinguished between food and nonfood items. However, this theory is rather a supposition because it was not able to explain why individuals with mental retardation deliberately select and eat certain nonfood items. Pica is also seen in individuals with psychiatric conditions. "Several recent studies suggest significant psychiatric comorbidity (coexisting disorders) as a determinant of pica." (3) Emil Kraeplin was one of the first to document pica among psychotic patients and called the behavior "a perversion of the appetite."

Article by Alina Morrow
MS Psychology
Medical Writer
OmniMedicalSearch.com