pica

(Latin: magpie; related to Latin, picus, "woodpecker"; probably translated from Greek kissa, kitta, "magpie, jay")

In medicine, an appetite for substances unfit as food; probably a reference to eating habits similar to those of magpies which are known to eat almost anything or prone to indiscriminate feeding.

pica
1. The genus that includes the magpies.
2. A vitiated appetite that craves what is unfit for food; such as, chalk, ashes, coal, etc.

A craving for something not normally regarded as nutritive. For example, dirt. Pica is a classic clue to iron deficiency in children. It also occurs in zinc deficiency. Pica is also seen as a symptom in several neurobiological disorders, including autism and Tourette's syndrome, and is sometimes seen during pregnancy.

3. Allotriophagy; cittosis; compulsive eating of nonnutritive substances; such as, ice (pagophagia), dirt (geophagia), paint, clay, and laundry starch; or other items.

Typically, the subjects eat one kind of material; the degree of compulsivity varies; however, people try to hide the impulse and their behavior from their families and only rarely discuss it as a complaint with their physicians.

Iron therapy is highly effective, and within one or two weeks not only does the pica disappear, but the original craving often becomes a revulsion.

pical, picary
Belonging to or of the nature of pica; depraved, vitiated (in appetite).
picatio
A reference to pica.

The Suffering of People with "Pica"

The teacher's problem was chalk sticks. Instead of writing on the chalk board with them, she was eating five or six units every day.

  • She is one of the possible millions of people who has what is called pica, the craving and consuming of non-food items.
  • Chalk, clay, laundry starch, ice cubes, plaster, dirt, tinfoil, and paper are just a sampling of some of the things consumed by people with pica, although sufferers usually crave a single substance.
  • Some pica sufferers crave their own hair, eating it by the handfuls until it wads in their stomachs and requires surgery.
  • Most picas are not fatal but they can cause vitamin deficiencies, ulcers, stomach upsets and psychological problems, according to doctors who have studied the disorder.
  • Doctors are not sure if picas are caused by vitamin and mineral deficiencies or if they are a learned social habit.
  • Whole neighborhoods in some Southern states are known to eat clay out of specific clay pits and will even ship "care packages" of the clay to relatives and friends who have moved away.
  • Most peolple with pica suffer from iron or zinc deficiencies, but doctors are not sure if the deficiency triggers the craving or if the craving creates the deficiency.
  • Picas are also common in institutions. Institutionalized people with the condition often resort to eating their hair because other substances are removed from them.
  • Many pregnant women crave as well, but often for weird food combinations rather than non-food items.

    • Pica is apparently more common than most people realize

    In some low socio-economic populations it's as high as 40 or 50 percent.

  • Chalk, clay, laundry starch, ice cubes, plaster, dirt, tinfoil, and paper are just samples of some of the things consumed by people with pica, and sufferers usually crave a single substance.
  • Some pica sufferers crave their own hair, eating it by the handfuls until it wads in their stomachs and requires surgery.
  • Most picas are not fatal, but they can cause vitamin deficiencies, ulcers, stomach ukpsets and psychological problems, according to doctors who have studied the disorder.
  • Doctors are not sure if picas are caused by vitamin and mineral deficiencies or id they are a learned social habit.
  • Whole neighborhoods in some Southern states are known to eat clay out of specific clay pits and will even ship "care packages" of the clay to relatives and friends who have moved on to other geographical locations.
  • Eating ice cubes is a common form of pica experienced by non-pregnant, middle-class women. People with this pica can chew up to five gallons of ice a day, ruining their teeth if not their appetite.
  • Picas are common in institutions and among pregnant women.
  • Institutionalized people with the condition often resort to eating their hair because other substances are removed from them.
  • Many pregnant women crave as well, but often for food rather than non-food items (ice cream and pickles, for example); however, this is also considered to be a form of pica.
  • Often the substance craved in pica has no real taste to it and there seems to be more interest in the feel or the texture of the items being eaten than in any taste factors.
—This information is based on an article titled,
"The suffering of people with 'pica' " by Gayle Young,
United Press International as seen in The Stars and Stripes,
February 19, 1986.

A page about eating non-nutritive things. A page about Allotriophagy or the eating of non-food items.

A page about eating non-nutritive things. Geophagy or eating clay.

A page about eating non-nutritive things. It's Pica Again.

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