‘Hoarding disorder’ diagnosis proposed

PEOPLE whose houses are piled high with a lifetime of memorabilia have long attracted the fascination of documentary makers and nosey neighbours alike.

But far from being a harmless quirk, experts are warning that compulsive hoarding of personal stuff is a serious – and clinically misunderstood – medical condition.

Affecting up to 5% of the population, the most severe hoarders eventually store so many things their houses become serious fire hazards, US expert Dr Randy Frost told a recent conference in Melbourne.

Hoarding has typically been lumped in with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), but Dr Frost argues for its reclassification as a distinct condition with its own set of motivations.

“While OCD is driven by anxiety and distress, hoarders are motivated by pleasure or interest in an object,” he told the International Congress of Applied Psychology.

“Hoarders believe a piece of their lives will be lost if they get rid of their possessions. They experience a huge sense of loss when discarding items, which is much more about grief than anxiety.”

Dr Frost’s view is also gaining momentum among psychiatrists, who have proposed ‘hoarding disorder’ as a new diagnosis for the upcoming fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The diagnosis would apply to those whose hoarding occurs independently from other mental disorders.

This distinction may prove problematic, however, with Dr Frost’s research showing one in four hoarders has general anxiety disorder and half have clinical depression.

“We’ve learnt that many folks who visit counsellors with other disorders are actually compulsive hoarders, it’s just a lot of them are too ashamed to say they hoard,” said Dr Frost, a psychology professor at Smith College in Northampton, Massachussets.