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Risk factors
By Mayo Clinic staffHoarding can affect anyone, regardless of age, sex or economic status. It's not clear how common hoarding is, though. That's partly because researchers have only recently begun to study it and partly because some people never seek treatment.
Here are some risk factors and features about hoarding that researchers have come to understand:
- Age. Hoarding usually starts in early adolescence, around age 12, and it tends to get worse with age.
- Family history. People are more likely to hoard if they have close family members who engage in compulsive hoarding.
- Stressful life events. Some people develop hoarding after experiencing a stressful life event that they had difficulty coping with, such as the death of a loved one, divorce, eviction or losing possessions in a fire.
- Social isolation. People who hoard are typically socially withdrawn and isolated. In many cases, the hoarding leads to social isolation. But, on the other hand, some people may turn to the comfort of hoarding because they're lonely.
- Perfectionism. People who compulsively hoard are often perfectionists. They worry about making the right decision about what to do with each possession — should they keep it or discard it? Trying to decide causes distress, so they avoid making a decision and simply keep everything.
- Maidment K. Compulsive hoarding syndrome - An introduction. Obsessive Compulsive Foundation.http://www.ocfoundation.org/hoarding/about-hoarding/compulsive-hoarding-syndrome-introduction.php. Accessed April 14, 2009.
- Neziroglu F, et al. How compulsive hoarding affects families. Obsessive Compulsive Foundation.http://www.ocfoundation.org/hoarding/effects-family-society/how-compulsive-hoarding-affects-families.php. Accessed April 14, 2009.
- Abramowitz J, et al. The status of hoarding as a symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy. 2008;46:1026.
- Pertusa A, et al. Compulsive hoarding: OCD symptom, distinct clinical syndrome, or both? The American Journal of Psychiatry. 2008;165:1289.
- Saxena S. Recent advances in compulsive hoarding. Current Psychiatry Reports. 2008;10:297.
- Frost RO, et al. Measurement of compulsive hoarding: Saving inventory - revised. Behavior Research and Therapy. 2004;42:1163.
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder. In: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR. 4th ed. Arlington, Va.: American Psychiatric Association; 2000. http://www.psychiatryonline.com. Accessed Jan. 20, 2009.
- Maidment K. Problems in treating compulsive hoarding. Obsessive Compulsive Foundation. http://www.ocfoundation.org/hoarding/treatment/problems-in-treating-compulsive-hoarding.php. Accessed April 14, 2009.
- Hall-Flavin DK (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. April 17, 2009.
