Step Inside the Real World of Compulsive Hoarders

 

Many of our students are watching programs about hoarding, such as Hoarders on A&E and Hoarding:  Buried Alive on TLC.  This Scientific American article, Step Inside the Real World of Compulsive Hoarders, discusses how recent research has changed how mental health professionals diagnose and treat those who hoard.  In the DSM-IV-TR, hoarding was linked to OCD.  However, research has demonstrated that OCD is both genetically and neurologically distinct from hoarding.  It is reported that hoarding may be genetically recessive whereas OCD is dominant.  In addition, thoughts about hoarding are not unpleasant or intrusive, where OCD sufferers find their obsessive thinking to be both.  Reportedly hoarding will be considered a disorder unlinked to OCD in the DSM V scheduled to be released this May.  Read more at:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=real-world-hoarding&WT.mc_id=SA_DD_20130225

Kristin H. Whitlock

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