Pica

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. Pica is a Latin term for magpie, a bird that gleans all sorts of things for its nest.

* * *

A perverted appetite for substances not fit as food or of no nutritional value; e.g., clay, dried paint, starch, ice. [L. p., magpie]

* * *

percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty; Porch Index of Communicative Abilities; posterior inferior cerebellar artery; posterior inferior communicating artery

* * *

pi·ca 'pī-kə n an abnormal craving for and eating of substances (as chalk, ashes, or bones) not normally eaten that occurs in nutritional deficiency states (as aphosphorosis) in humans or animals or in some forms of mental illness compare GEOPHAGY

* * *

n.

the indiscriminate eating of non-nutritious or harmful substances, such as grass, stones, or clothing. It is common in early childhood but may also be found in mentally handicapped and psychotic patients. Although previously thought to be completely nonadaptive, some evidence suggests that some patients showing pica may have particular mineral deficiencies.

* * *

pi·ca (piґkə) [L. “magpie” (because this bird eats or carries away odd objects)] compulsive eating of nonnutritive substances, such as ice (pagophagia), dirt (geophagia), gravel, flaking paint or plaster, clay, hair (trichophagia), or laundry starch (amylophagia). It also occurs in some patients with iron or zinc deficiencies. In children this syndrome, classified with the eating disorders in DSM-IV, is a rare mental disorder with onset typically in the second year of life; it usually remits in childhood but may persist into adolescence.