child with habitual scab picking

My dtr is almost 9 years old and has been picking her scabs for over a year. I took her to her pediatrician several months ago. She was prescribed Orapred for 14 days as well as antibiotics. Amazingly, she healed completely for about a month. In the past 2 months, the scab picking has resurfaced with a vengeance. She has approx 20-25 OPEN areas now. She says she wants to stop, but can't. Even her teacher has commented that she pulls up her jeans/pants to pick her legs during class. She is always trying to hide her body so we don't see the damage. We have tried EVERYTHING!
Explaining that she'll get infections, may have to be hospitalized, people ask her what's wrong with her, if she has impetigo. We have tried to be calm, we have grounded her, taken away privelaged to do thing she enjoys, gotten angry, yelled, tried to reason with her, we have even made her stay in the family room so she will not have any time "alone" to pick. We are at our wits end. Until recently, her lying to us about it was excessive. She would deny picking when she had a fresh open wound that was actively bleeding. I really don't want to have to put her on a SSRI (I have taken several of them in the past for depression and several of them had a severe paradoxal effect on me). I know a lot of her problem could be genetic, as my father, myself, and siblings picked scabs as children. I don't know where to go to help my child.
We are new to the area we live in (amazingly, she didn't pick right after we moved , she started picking before school started back). She is very intelligent and loving. She has both parents at home. She has had no trauma during her life. I'm just wondering what we can do to help her?

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

You are wise to identify the genetic predisposition involved in this. After all you have attempted, I would not guide you in the direction of a behavioral approach to this. While it was not your first thought, I would suggest you arrange an evaluation with a child psychiatrist to review the options to address this compulsive behavior, and the prescription of an SSRI might well occur.