From the urge to see one’s own blood to the urge to drink it: Can hemomania be specified as an impulse control disorder? Two case reports

At least half of self-mutilative individuals report that seeing their own blood is comforting, while a quarter report that they have tasted it. Bloodletting and blood-drinking behaviors have been discussed in case reports of disorders such as borderline personality disorder, bulimia nervosa, dissociative identity disorder, and psychotic disorder. The role of blood-drinking behavior, however, needs to be clarified in the psychiatric literature. This paper is the first to discuss blood-drinking behavior as a possible impulse control disorder that progresses from a desire to see or taste one’s own blood. It presents the cases of two patients who report drawing blood from their own arms via syringe and drinking it. The first patient began to suck her own blood by removing scabs at age 8. The second started cutting his arm during his middle school years to reduce tension. Both eventually began to drink their own blood by draining it impulsively. This paper presents two cases with blood-drinking behavior diagnosed as impulse control disorder not otherwise specified according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. We propose the term “hemomania” to describe an impulse control disorder characterized by impaired functioning due to at least one of the following urges: seeing one’s own blood, self-bloodletting, and tasting/drinking one’s own blood. We argue that hemomania progresses from an urge to see one’s own blood to the urge to drink it, though randomized controlled studies are needed to support this claim.