Hoarding to be recognised as a mental disorder
Hoarding has been classified as a medical disorder for the first time by the World Health Organisation in a move that experts say could benefit thousands of people. Experts said it was “an extremely significant” decision that would help doctors identify people struggling with hoarding.
HOARDING has been classified as a medical disorder for the first time by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in a move that experts say could benefit thousands of people.
Psychiatrists said the “extremely significant” decision would help doctors and the NHS identify people struggling with hoarding and improve treatment for a condition campaigners say affects up to 5 per cent of the population. According to the WHO, hoarding disorder is characterised by an “accumulation of possessions due to excessive acquisition of or difficulty discarding possessions, regardless of their actual value”.
One campaigner gave the example of a person who might have a cup of tea but would be unable to throw away the teabag.
“Excessive acquisition is characterised by repetitive urges or behaviours related to amassing or buying items,” said the WHO. “Difficulty discarding possessions is characterised by a perceived need to save items and distress associated with discarding them.
“Accumulation of possessions results in living spaces becoming cluttered to the point that their use or safety is compromised. The symptoms result in significant distress or significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning.”
Hoarding is one of three new conditions be added to the WHO’S ICD-11 list of illnesses alongside gaming disorder and olfactory reference disorder, where people believe they smell bad when they do not. It is the first time the list has been updated for 18 years.
Prof Naomi Fineberg, a member of the WHO working group and lead clinician at the NHS national centre for obsessive compulsive disorders, said treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy or medication tended not to be effective, leaving families to “suffer for years”. The WHO definition and classification could, therefore, be “an extremely significant event”, enabling earlier and better identification of sufferers, targeting of the most vulnerable and the development of more effective treatments, she said.
Megan Karnes, founder and director of the charity Hoarding UK, said it was “wonderful news” for the 2-5 per cent of people who exhibited at least some symptoms. She said that although there had been improvements in care and recognition since the US Psychiatric Association classified it as a disorder in 2013, she said many sufferers were threatened with eviction rather than offered effective care.