Classifications

Pica is generally classified according to the type of substance consumed. Names for subclassifications of pica are comprised of the Greek word for the ingested substance and the suffix from the Greek word “phagein,” meaning “to eat” (Moore and Sears 1994). Cross-culturally, the most commonly noted and explored type of pica is geophagy or geophagia, the consumption of earth and especially clay. Other types include ingestion of ice or ice water (pagophagia); laundry starch (amylophagia); hair (trichophagia); gravel, stones, or pebbles (lithophagia); leaves, grass, or other plants (foliophagia); feces (coprophagia); and unusual amounts of lettuce (lectophagia), peanuts (gooberphagia), and raw potatoes (geomelophagia). Paint, plaster, coal, chalk, cloth, pepper, coffee grounds, paper, cigarette butts, and other household items are also commonly consumed by those engaged in pica (Feldman 1986: 521).

There is some agreement historically and cross-culturally that the populations most prone to pica are young children, pregnant women, persons with mental illness, and the mentally retarded. There is also similarity cross-culturally in the types of items most frequently consumed. These include coal, ice, chalk, plaster, and various types of earth, in particular clay.

As a rule, children who engage in pica are under the age of 6 (Castiglia 1993).The things they consume are restricted by proximity to their grasp and normally tend to be relatively harmless items such as cloth, dirt, leaves, sand, and small rocks or pebbles (Parry-Jones and Parry-Jones 1992). Children who chew furniture or eat paint or plaster can be harmed, and plumbophagia, the ingestion of lead paint, is an important cause of lead poisoning. In fact, the practice of plumbophagia has led to the banning of lead-based paints for interior use in homes.

Trichophagia refers to the ingestion of hair and is one of the types of pica found most often among children. It is especially associated with the habit of girls chewing on long hair and is believed to be related to other, somewhat common, behaviors such as chewing one’s fingernails and chewing pencils (Higgins 1993). Trichophagia is of medical concern when substantial amounts of hair result in the formation of “hair balls” within the intestinal tract.