Hoarding disorder is characterized by persistent difficulty discarding possessions, regardless of the value others may attribute to these possessions. They accumulate a large number of possessions that often fill up or clutter active living areas of the home or workplace to the extent that their intended use is no longer possible. Previously, hoarding has been treated as a typical obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptom, using first-line pharmacological and psychological treatments for OCD, however, the results have not been robust. Clinical trial evidence suggests that OCD patients with hoarding symptoms are less responsive to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) than those without hoarding symptoms. On the other hand, hoarding and non-hoarding OCD patients fared equally well in one open trial of paroxetine.
In the fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), hoarding disorder has been subsumed into the obsessive-compulsive disorders and related disorders (OCDRD) category.
