Signs and symptoms
Pica is the consumption of substances with no significant nutritive value such as earth or ice.[1] Subtypes are characterized by the substance eaten for example:
- Amylophagia (consumption of starch)
- Coprophagy (consumption of feces)
- Geophagy (consumption of soil, clay, or chalk)
- Hyalophagia (consumption of glass)
- Consumption of dust or sand has been reported among iron-deficient patients.
- Lithophagia (a subset of geophagia, consumption of pebbles orrocks)[5]
- Mucophagia (consumption of mucus)
- Odowa (soft stones eaten by pregnant women in Kenya)[6]
- Consumption of paint.
- Pagophagia (pathological consumption of ice)
- Self-cannibalism (rare condition where body parts may be consumed; see also Lesch-Nyhan syndrome)
- Trichophagia (consumption of hair or wool)
- Urophagia (consumption of urine)
- Xylophagia (consumption of wood or paper)
This pattern of eating should last at least one month to fit the diagnosis of pica.[7]
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