Levels of depression, anxiety and disability in OCD hoarding and nonhoarding patients

Lauren Williams


        Within the extant literature on obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), there are few studies on compulsive hoarding. Of these few, one study indicates that people who suffer from compulsive hoarding report more general psychopathology than people who do not (Frost, Krause, & Steketee, 1996). However, studies have examined neither the severity of depression and anxiety, nor levels of disability in this population. The present study addressed whether presons who hoard exhibit more symptoms of depressions and anxiety, and report higher levels of disability. The three-group design included two groups of clinical subjects (hoarders and OCD non-hoarders) solicited from self-help groups, treatment facilities, and an Obsessive Compulsive Foundation newsletter and website. Community controls were solicited in both the local community and from nominations from the patient sample. The analyses revealed significant differences among the groups on the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Sheehan Disability Inventory. Hoarding subjects and OCD subjects were significantly more anxious than controls and did not differ from one another. Hoarding subjects reported significantly more depression on the BDI than either OCD subjects or controls. On the SDI, hoarding subjects reported greater disability in work, family and social situations than controls; OCD subjects also reported greater disability than controls and did not differ from hoarders.