SRIs Work for Compulsive Hoarders

By Vivian Richardson, Ivanhoe Health Correspondent/Reported November 6, 2006

ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Piles of newspapers, fast food wrappers, plastic bags ... All things a compulsive hoarder may hang on to for years because the thought of throwing them away is unbearable.

Now, doctors report the condition may be more treatable than many believe. Despite previously held beliefs in the psychiatric health community, compulsive hoarding can be treated with medications used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD). Before this study, the only treatment known to effective was behavioral therapy.

Compulsive hoarding is estimated to affect up to 2 million people in the United States. While the condition may be associated with other problems, like Alzheimer's, researcher Sanjaya Saxena, M.D., director of the OCD program at the University of California, San Diego, says it's most commonly found in patients with OCD.

Dr. Saxena and colleagues tested the effectiveness of paroxetine (Paxil) -- a serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI) -- for the treatment of OCD patients with compulsive hoarding syndrome. They discovered both the hoarding and non-hoarding patients with OCD had similar responses to the medication. The finding contradicts past studies which suggested the syndrome was difficult to treat.

Dr. Saxena told Ivanhoe the results are encouraging for people with the syndrome and their families. "It means it is even more treatable than we had originally imagined," he said. Combined with behavioral therapy, SRIs have the potential to help many people with compulsive hoarding syndrome.

SOCIAL AND HEALTH HAZARD

At its mildest, compulsive hoarding can mean taking too long to complete tasks because things get lost in disorganized piles. At its most severe, most or all rooms of a person's home will be unusable because of clutter. Nothing is thrown away, "even though everybody else around the person can see this stuff is minimally valuable or not valuable at all," Dr. Saxena said."We know lots of people with compulsive hoarding who haven't had people over to their home in years because they are too embarrassed and filled with shame that it is too cluttered," Dr. Saxena said. He described a patient who had not had anyone other than close blood-relatives into his or her home for more than 20 years.

"I've seen spouses get divorced over this," he said. Beyond the social consequences, hoarding can be a true health hazard. Elderly patients can put themselves at risk of falling when piles of collected items fill their homes.

CAUSES

Dr. Saxena says studies from other programs have shown people with compulsive hoarding have brain abnormalities. "Most people out in the lay public just think that these people are being lazy or they're being willfully stubborn, wanting to keep this stuff even though everyone is telling them to clean it up," he explained. "They really can't just go home and clean it up because the fears and anxieties are very powerful, very overwhelming, and that's going to require treatment."

There are other causes for compulsive hoarding, however. That's why it's important for anyone showing signs of the syndrome to be checked out by a physician or psychiatrist. Other causes include:

• Alzheimer's
• Dementia
• Psychosis
• Brain injuries -- stroke, hemorrhage, aneurysm

To find out more about ongoing clinical trials, call:

• Dr. Saxena's office: (858) 642-3472
• University of California, San Diego OCD Clinic: (858) 642-3742

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

SOURCE: Ivanhoe interview with Sanjaya Saxena, M.D., Director of the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders Program and the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine; The Journal of Psychiatric Research, published online June 21, 2006

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