The sin picking syndrome, characterized by repetitive, ritualistic, or impulsive skin picking that lead to unintenional tissue damage and causes significant distress or impairment in daily functioning, is not yet recognized as a symptom of a distinct ICD-10 or DSM-IV disorder. It is a chronic disorder with a high rate of psychiatric comorbidity. In ethological terms it is a form of pathological grooming behaviour and it is also detected in animals.The range of this syndrome and its clinical consequences are not limited only to psychiatry but extend to other fields of medicine. The article deals with clinical features and provisional diagnostic criteria of the skin picking syndrome, differential diagnosis, and existing treatment modalities with, however, only sparse and inconsistent results.

        Key words: skin-picking - compulsive behaviour - OCD - anxiety disorders - depression - Prader-Willi syndrome - trichotillomania - Münchhausen syndrome - diagnosis - treatment.