Hoarding and obsessive-compulsive symptoms.
Hoarding shows up in about a quarter of people with OCD or ASD and signals greater overall symptom load.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Frost et al. (1996) gave the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale to adults in clinics and to people in the community.
They counted how many people with OCD said they hoard and how severe their other symptoms were.
What they found
About one in four people with OCD also hoard.
Higher hoarding scores went hand-in-hand with higher total OCD scores, even in people who never sought help.
How this fits with other research
Van Hees et al. (2018) and van Timmeren et al. (2016) later asked the same question in kids with autism plus anxiety. They found nearly the same hoarding rate—about one in four—showing the pattern holds across diagnoses and ages.
Fullana et al. (2007) tracked college students for two years and saw that hoarding scores stayed steady, backing up the idea that hoarding is a stable trait, not a fleeting symptom.
Smith et al. (2010) looked at adults with OCD who also have autism traits. They found that attention-switching problems predicted every OCD symptom except hoarding, hinting that hoarding may sit in its own lane.
Why it matters
If you screen for OCD, add one quick hoarding item. The same question works for adults, teens, or kids with autism. When hoarding pops up, plan for longer treatment and safety checks for clutter, no matter the main diagnosis.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The present study attempts to extend recent research on the relation between hoarding and obsessive-compulsive experiences. In both college student and community samples, hoarding was associated with higher scores on the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (YBOCS). The relationship was stronger among the community sample, in which there was a greater range of compulsive symptoms and hoarding behavior. Hoarding was also associated with higher levels of general psychopathology as measured by the Brief Symptom Inventory but not by the Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder subscale from the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II or by a measure of ordinary risk taking. Among a sample of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), 31% reported hoarding obsessions and 26% reported hoarding compulsions on the YBOCS symptom checklist. These frequencies are similar to those found elsewhere and suggest that, although not as frequent as the classical symptoms of OCD, hoarding is a common symptom among OCD patients.
Behavior modification, 1996 · doi:10.1177/01454455960201006