Hoarding will soon be recognized as mental disorder

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By: Christa Dubill

 

Inside a small Kansas City-area home, a mom quietly maneuvers along a path intricately etched through mounds of clothing, paperwork, books and boxes.

There are full storage bins and bags stacked to at least waist-high. The circular kitchen table, which sits within feet of the front door, is covered in a pile of paper and cardboard reaching the edge all the way around...

...Experts estimate 5 percent of the population are hoarders. That is twice the rate of obsessive compulsive disorder, and four times the rate of bipolar and schizophrenia.

Even with those statistics, hoarding is not recognized as a mental disorder. But that is about to change.

For the first time, the American Psychiatric Association -- the group tasked with updating the manual all mental health professionals use for diagnosing -- is planning to add hoarding as its own category next year. The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is being published in spring 2013.

Many believe a clinical diagnosis is the first step in the right direction for treatment..."  More