A Study on the Prevalence and Phenomenology of Hoarding in Patients with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

• Main Authors: Manish Tale, Riteeka Dikshit, Sagar Karia, Nilesh Shah, Sushma Sonavane, Avinash Desousa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: JCDR Research and Publications Private Limited 2019-09-01
• Series: Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research
• Subjects: compulsion; hoarding habit; obsession
• Online Access: https://jcdr.net/articles/PDF/13149/41586_CE[Ra1]_F(SL)_PF1(AJ_KM)_PFA(AJ_KM)_PN(SL).pdf
• ISSN: 2249-782X; 0973-709X

Introduction: Hoarding behaviour is a common symptom seen in patients with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The phenomenology and prevalence of hoarding in OCD have been under studied in India and the phenomenon is less explored on routine clinical examination. Aim: To study the prevalence and phenomenology of hoarding as a symptom in patients with OCD and tried to elucidate some differences between OCD patients with and without hoarding symptoms. Materials and Methods: A total of 50 patients with OCD and 50 relatives of psychiatric patients were the subjects for the study. The OCD group was administered the Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS), the Hoarding Rating Scale and the Clutter Image Rating Scale. The 50 cases of OCD were further divided on the presence and absence of hoarding as a symptom into 2 groups and the scores on the scales used were statistically analysed using descriptive statistics like frequency and percentages, chi-square test and unpaired t-test. Results: The mean duration of illness was 8.01±5.17 years and the mean age of onset of the illness was 27.28±7.11 years for all patients with OCD. OCD patients with hoarding had a shorter total duration of illness than those without hoarding. Newspapers and scrap were hoarded the most with sentimental reasons along with importance of goods were cited as reasons for the behaviour. The two groups showed significant differences on compulsive sub scale of the YBOCS and no differences were noted in the other scales used. Conclusion: Patients having OCD with hoarding as one of the symptoms may differ from those not having hoarding. However larger studies across diverse groups are needed to corroborate these findings.