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PubMed1988

Sibling inhibition of hoarding in postweaning hamster pups (Mesocricetus auratus).

If hamster pups are placed in individual cages at weaning (21 days of age) they begin to hoard food immediately; within 2-6 days, they hoard 90% of the food they take from their food dish in the course of a 1-hr test, consuming only 10% of it. Pups that remain with their littermates after weaning in large group cages do not hoard food until they are placed in individual cages, when hoarding starts immediately. The inhibitory effect of littermates is just as pronounced in hamsters that have been allowed to hoard food in individual cages for 14 days after weaning and are then regrouped into litters. If litters are housed in divided cages that prevent physical interactions among littermates, but allow the interchange of olfactory, auditory, and some visual cues, hoarding is suppressed to an intermediate level. These results show that the presence of siblings inhibits the expression of hoarding, partly as a result of direct physical interactions and partly through the agency of sensory cues. The onset of hoarding following the dispersal of young from the nest cannot be explained as a motivational consequence of the young no longer having access to the mother's food hoard.

Aging↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Caloric density affects food hoarding and intake by Siberian hamsters.

Siberian hamsters respond to food deprivation or restriction by increasing their food hoarding and do so proportionately to the degree of body mass (fat) loss. These data suggest that Siberian hamsters integrate their internally stored energy as body fat with their externally stored energy as hoarded food such that when internal energy stores are decreased, external stores are increased. The purpose of the present experiments was to test whether the caloric value of the food hoard is regulated. This was accomplished by challenging the hamsters with diets of varying caloric density and assessing whether their hoarded food is changed accordingly. Specifically, in Experiment 1 hamsters were switched from the control food pellets to a diet where the caloric density was increased by creating a high fat diet (HFD). In Experiment 2, the caloric density of the control diet was decreased by diluting it with cellulose such that 25% and 50% (kcal/wt) reduced calorie diets (RCDs) were created. HFD-fed hamsters decreased their food hoarding, increased their body mass, and decreased the grams of food eaten, but not enough to compensate exactly for the increased caloric density of the diet. When refed the control diet, food hoarding increased to pre-HFD levels as body mass and food intake decreased. RCD feeding resulted in caloric density-dependent effects on all measures. Food hoarding and intake (grams and calories) increased when hamsters were given the 25% RCD and did so to an even greater degree when given the 50% RCD. Thus, Siberian hamsters responded to increases or decreases in the caloric density of their food by attempting to regulate the number of calories hoarded and eaten; however, the adjustments in food hoarding: 1) were not precise, 2) were largely opposite of food intake, 3) tended to be inversely related to body mass and 4) were caloric density dependent.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

Age of onset of compulsive hoarding.

Although compulsive hoarding appears to be a chronic, progressive disorder, little is known about its onset and course. The current study employed retrospective assessment of 51 individuals with compulsive hoarding difficulties to determine onset of various hoarding symptoms (clutter, acquisition, difficulty discarding), as well as the individual's degree of recognition of the problem at various times throughout his or her life. Participants were asked to describe life events from each decade that occurred at the time hoarding symptoms were developing. Symptoms of clutter and difficulty discarding appeared to begin at approximately the same age, whereas acquiring problems began slightly later. Recognition of the problem developed significantly later than any of the symptoms themselves. A portion of participants reported that their hoarding symptoms were reduced at some point in their lives, but few reported full remission of hoarding at any point. Survival analysis of age of onset of hoarding symptoms indicated that individuals who reported a stressful event when saving behavior started had a significantly later age of onset than those who reported no events at the age of onset. Perhaps for some individuals compulsive hoarding is a lifelong characterological phenomenon, whereas for others hoarding behavior develops later as a reaction to stress or loss.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed2006

Paroxetine treatment of compulsive hoarding.

OBJECTIVE: Compulsive hoarding, found in many patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), has been associated with poor response to serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SRI) medications in some reports. However, no prior study has quantitatively measured response to standardized pharmacotherapy in compulsive hoarders. We sought to determine whether compulsive hoarders would respond as well as non-hoarding OCD patients to the SRI, paroxetine. METHODS: Seventy-nine patients with OCD (32 patients with the compulsive hoarding syndrome and 47 patients without prominent hoarding symptoms) were treated openly with paroxetine (mean dose 41.6+/-12.8 mg/day; mean duration 80.4+/-23.5 days) according to a standardized protocol, from 3/1993 to 7/2005. All subjects were free of psychotropic medication for at least four weeks prior to study entry. No psychotherapy or psychotropic medications except paroxetine were allowed during the study period. Subjects were assessed before and after treatment with the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), Hamilton Anxiety Scale (Ham-A), Global Assessment Scale (GAS), and Clinical Global Impression/Improvement (CGI) scale. RESULTS: Both compulsive hoarders and non-hoarding OCD patients improved significantly with treatment (p<0.001), with nearly identical changes in Y-BOCS, HDRS, Ham-A, and GAS scores. There were no significant differences between groups in the proportions of patients who completed or responded to treatment. Hoarding symptoms improved as much as other OCD symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Compulsive hoarders responded as well to paroxetine treatment as non-hoarding OCD patients, suggesting that SRI medications are effective for compulsive hoarding. Controlled trials of SRI medications for compulsive hoarding are now warranted.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Hoarding, compulsive buying and reasons for saving.

Two studies examined hypotheses about compulsive hoarding, compulsive buying and beliefs about saving and discarding derived from the cognitive-behavioral model of compulsive hoarding [Frost, R. O. and Hartl, T. (1996). A cognitive behavioral model of compulsive hoarding. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 34, 341-350.]. Study 1 examined the hypotheses in a college student population, while study 2 compared members of a support group for hoarding and clutter-related problems with a nonclinical control. Across studies the hypotheses were supported. Compulsive hoarding was associated with compulsive buying and the frequency of acquisition of possessions discarded by others, suggesting that compulsive acquisition may be a broader construct than compulsive buying among people with hoarding problems. Regarding its association with OCD symptoms, hoarding was most closely associated with the impaired mental control features of OCD. Finally, offa hoarding-related task, hoarding was associated with a greater frequency of reasons to save, but was not associated with fewer reasons to discard a target possession.

Adult↗

PubMed2003

Food hoarding is increased by food deprivation and decreased by leptin treatment in Syrian hamsters.

Compensatory increases in food intake are commonly observed after a period of food deprivation in many species, including laboratory rats and mice. Thus it is interesting that Syrian hamsters fail to increase food intake after a period of food deprivation, despite a fall in plasma leptin concentrations similar to those seen in food-deprived rats and mice. In previous laboratory studies, food-deprived Syrian hamsters increased the amount of food hoarded. We hypothesized that leptin treatment during food deprivation would attenuate food-deprivation-induced increases in hoarding. Baseline levels of hoarding were bimodally distributed, with no hamsters showing intermediate levels of hoarding. Both high (HH) and low hoarding (LH) hamsters were included in each experimental group. Fifty-six male hamsters were either food deprived or given ad libitum access to food for 48 h. One-half of each group received intraperitoneal injections of leptin (4 mg/kg) or vehicle every 12 h during the food-deprivation period. Within the HH group, the hoarding score increased significantly in food-deprived but not fed hamsters (P < 0.05). Leptin treatment significantly decreased hoarding in the food-deprived HH hamsters (P < 0.05). The LH hamsters did not increase hoarding regardless of whether they were food deprived or had ad libitum access to food. These results are consistent with the idea that HH hamsters respond to energetic challenges at least in part by changing their hoarding behavior and that leptin might be one factor that mediates this response.

Animals↗

PubMed1999

Hoarding: a review.

BACKGROUND: Hoarding is currently categorized as a symptom of both obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. However, hoarding has also been documented in association with other psychiatric disorders, raising questions about the classification, psychobiology and treatment of these symptoms. This paper reviews the literature on hoarding. METHOD: A computerized literature search was done using the MEDLINE database. Relevant references were collated and were used to obtain additional literature on hoarding behavior. RESULTS: Although hoarding may meet DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for a compulsion, this symptom is also seen in a range of other disorders. Nevertheless, the phenomenology of hoarding remains under-researched. In addition, the psychobiology and treatment of hoarding remains relatively poorly understood, although in certain aspects there may be some overlap with the symptoms of OCD. CONCLUSIONS: Further research on the phenomenology, psychobiology and treatment of hoarding is clearly needed. A neuro-ethological view of hoarding as a spectrum symptom seen not only in OCD, but also in other disorders, may provide a useful heuristic for current clinical practice and for future empirical research.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Categorization in compulsive hoarding.

Based on hypothesizing about the role of information processing, and in particular, underinclusive categorization in compulsive hoarding, this study examined categorization processes in people with clinically significant compulsive hoarding problems. Twenty-one participants with primary compulsive hoarding, 21 with OCD without hoarding, and 21 non-psychiatric controls completed three categorization tasks. Hoarding and OCD participants reported significantly more distress prior to each of the three tasks than did controls. On tasks sorting common household items, the groups did not differ on the number of piles created nor on the amount of time taken to sort. However, on a task sorting personally relevant items, hoarding participants took more time, created more piles, and reported more anxiety than non-psychiatric controls. Hoarders also took more time than the OCD group, and tended to create more piles. Hoarding severity was correlated with the number of piles created, but only when the objects were personally relevant. Results support under-inclusive categorizing for people with compulsive hoarding, but the effect was largely confined to objects of personal relevance.

Adult↗

PubMed1999

Effects of food deprivation and metabolic fuel utilization on food hoarding by jirds (Meriones shawi).

Food hoarding plays an important role in the energetic repertoire of a variety of mammalian species. Both food hoarding and food intake have been examined in rodents using several energetic challenges including food deprivation, treatment with metabolic fuel blockers, and enhancement of fuel storage. In the present experiment, we examined food hoarding by female jirds (Meriones shawi), a desert rodent species occupying the arid steppes and desert regions of Egypt. Jirds are prodigious hoarders in the field; however, virtually nothing is known about their hoarding within controlled laboratory settings. In the present study, the effects of food deprivation as well as alterations in metabolic fuel utilization (i.e., 2-deoxy-D-glucose and isophane insulin) on food hoarding and food intake were tested in female jirds using a simulated burrow system. Jirds decreased body mass and increased food consumption following either 32 or 56-h food deprivation. Food hoarding, however, was virtually abolished after food deprivation and treatment with 2-DG. In contrast, isophane insulin treatment had no effect on food consumption or hoarding in this species. Taken together, the present results suggest that total body mass (fat), rather than short-term metabolic fuel utilization, regulates both food consumption and hoarding in female jirds. In addition, these results provide a novel set of appetitive responses to these energetic challenges in small mammals.

Analysis of Variance↗

PubMed2000

Hoarding: a community health problem.

Hoarding behaviour has been defined as the accumulation of possessions that are useless and that interfere with the ability to function. Severe hoarding may endanger not only the health and safety of the individual, but also their surrounding community. However, little information exists regarding the frequency and seriousness of this problem. This study represents the first attempt to determine the frequency of complaints about hoarding behaviour to responding health departments in one state (Massachusetts) and to explore the nature of these complaints. Eighty-eight health officers, serving a population of 1.79 million people, responded to a survey of complaints to local boards of health about hoarding behaviour. Sixty-four percent of the health officers reported at least one hoarding complaint during the five years under study; 471 case complaints were reported. In-depth information on the nature and circumstances of complaints was collected for 58 cases. Complaints typically involved multiple community agencies and occasionally resulted in significant cost to the community. Only half of the hoarders recognized the lack of sanitation in their home, and fewer than one third of complainants willingly co-operated to resolve the complaint against them. Hoarding behaviours were judged to seriously jeopardize the health of the individual and those around them. Hoarding behaviour that involved collecting animals was more serious and difficult to deal with than non-animal hoarding.

Journal Article↗

PubMed1994

Effects of food deprivation and restriction, and metabolic blockers on food hoarding in Siberian hamsters.

Syrian hamsters do not increase their food intake following several metabolic challenges, including food deprivation and blockade of metabolic fuel utilization, in contrast to the response of other small rodents to these challenges. Perhaps hamsters respond to such challenges differently, for example by altering hoarding. In the present experiments, we have begun to question the role of food hoarding in the total energy balance of Siberian hamsters. Therefore, we developed a simulated burrow system, where food was available outside the burrow for consumption and/or hoarding during a 15-h period surrounding the 8-h dark portion of the photocycle. Food hoarding, but not food intake, increased dramatically after 32- and 56-h fasts and was greater following the longer fast. Food-restricted weight-reduced hamsters (80% of ad libitum-fed controls) were refed and given the opportunity to hoard. Initially, when body weights were low, food hoarding was maximal and then decreased gradually to control levels as body weights reached those of the ad libitum-fed controls. Food intake was not affected. Neither hoarding nor food intake was affected by treatment with long-acting protamine zinc insulin, given to enhance the storage of metabolic fuels, at any dose tested. Finally, neither food intake nor hoarding was affected by treatment with the glucose utilization blocker 2-deoxy-D-glucose, the fatty acid utilization blocker methyl palmoxirate, or a combination of the two treatments, all at doses that stimulate food intake in laboratory rats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Animal Feed↗

PubMed2005

Hoarding in obsessive-compulsive disorder: clinical and genetic correlates.

OBJECTIVE: Hoarding may be an important symptom dimension in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Hoarding in OCD has been associated with poor insight, poorer response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors than other OCD symptom dimensions, and a distinctive psychobiological profile. The clinical and genetic correlates of hoarding in OCD therefore deserve additional investigation. METHOD: Adult OCD patients (N = 315) underwent a comprehensive clinical assessment that included the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (Patient Edition) and for Diagnosis of Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders. DNA extracted from venous blood (10-30 mL) in a Caucasian subset of the interviewed OCD patients (N = 204) and Caucasian controls (N = 169), including patients (N = 94) and controls (N = 138) of Afrikaner descent, was genotyped to investigate polymorphisms in genes involved in monoamine function and previously hypothesized to be relevant to OCD. Data were collected from 1998 through 2004. RESULTS: OCD patients with hoarding made up 18.1% of the total sample. Compared with nonhoarding OCD, OCD with hoarding was associated with a number of comorbid Axis I disorders, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, significantly higher OCD severity scores, and more functional impairment. In subjects of Afrikaner descent, the L/L genotype of the COMT Val158Met polymorphism was significantly more common in the OCD hoarding group, with a preponderance of low activity alleles, compared with nonhoarding patients and controls. CONCLUSIONS: These data are consistent with the hypothesis that hoarding represents a unique symptom subtype in OCD with a distinctive clinical and psychobiological profile. Further work is needed to determine the psychobiological mechanisms responsible for hoarding and to replicate the genetic findings noted here.

Adult↗

PubMed2001

Effects of foraging effort on body fat and food hoarding in Siberian hamsters.

Food hoard size varies inversely with body fat levels in Siberian hamsters. If food hoarding only increases when body fat decreases, then hamsters foraging for their food should only increase food hoarding when foraging efforts decrease body fat ("lipostatic hypothesis"); however, if food hoarding increases whenever there is an energy flux away from fat storage, then it should increase regardless of significant body fat decreases ("metabolic hypothesis"). Female Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus) earned food pellets after completion of a programmed number of wheel revolutions (Immobilized Wheel [free access to food], Free Wheel [wheel active, free food], and 10, 50, 100, and 200 revolutions/pellet). Hamsters were killed after 19 days and inguinal, retroperitoneal, and parametrial white adipose tissue (WAT) pads (IWAT, RWAT, and PWAT, respectively) were harvested and carcass composition determined. Food hoard size increased fourfold with the availability of running wheels alone (Free Wheel), increased threefold with low foraging levels (10 and 50 revolutions/pellet), but was nearly abolished at the highest foraging level (200 revolutions/pellet). Surplus food (earned, not eaten or hoarded) was significantly greatest at the lowest level of foraging. As foraging effort increased, PWAT mass decreased the most (<10 revolutions/pellet), while RWAT and IWAT mass only were decreased at the highest foraging effort. Carcass lipid content only was significantly decreased at the highest foraging effort, yet food hoarding was nearly abolished at that level. Collectively, these results demonstrate that body fat levels and food hoarding can be uncoupled with increases in foraging effort. J. Exp. Zool. 289:162-171, 2001.

Adipose Tissue↗

PubMed1993

The hoarding of possessions.

Three studies of nonfood hoarding are reported. Findings support the reliability and validity of a Hoarding Scale. Furthermore, the findings indicate a number of features of hoarding behavior. Hoarding was associated with indecisiveness, perfectionism (especially maladaptive evaluative concern) and obsessive compulsive symptoms among college students and community volunteers. Hoarders tended to buy extra things in order not to be caught without a needed item, and they carried more 'just-in-case' items in purses, pockets and cars. Onset of hoarding was childhood and adolescence. Hoarders had more first degree relatives who engaged in excessive saving than nonhoarders, and hoarders were less likely to be married. There was no evidence to suggest that hoarding was related to material deprivation. A model was suggested which conceptualizes hoarding as an avoidance behavior tied to indecisiveness and perfectionism. Saving allows the hoarder to avoid the decision required to throw something away, and the worry which accompanies that decision (worry that a mistake has been made). Also, it allows hoarders to avoid emotional reactions which accompany parting with cherished possessions, and results in increased perception of control.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1988

Neonatal thermal lesions of the mesolimbocortical dopaminergic projection decrease food-hoarding behavior.

In order to examine the effect of neonatal depletion of the dopaminergic mesocortical projection on the development of prefrontal cortex-mediated behaviors, male and female adult rats with neonatally applied thermal lesions of the dopaminergic A10 cell group in the ventral tegmental area were studied in a food-hoarding situation. Control male animals hoarded significantly more pellets than females. Neonatal depletion of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex strongly decreased food-hoarding activity in contrast with previous studies by others which have shown that neonatal lesions of the prefrontal cortex allow sparing of food-hoarding activity. Biochemical analysis demonstrated an approximately 50% depletion of both dopamine and serotonin in the prefrontal cortex of males, whereas noradrenaline levels were unchanged. The brains of the female rats were used to visualize the decreased dopaminergic and serotonergic innervation of the forebrain. Hoarding scores showed a significant positive correlation with the measured dopamine content of the medial prefrontal cortex, and not with the serotonin content. These results imply that the integrity of the dopaminergic projection to the prefrontal cortex is essential for food-hoarding behavior to occur and that food-hoarding activity is not spared after neonatal depletion of dopamine.

Animals↗

PubMed1982

Effect of ovarian and exogenous hormones on defended body weight, actual body weight, and the paradoxical hoarding of food by female rats.

Normally cycling female rats maintained on a free diet and showing the usual female pattern of hoarding behaviour (greater than 5 pellets/day) underwent bilateral ovariectomy or sham surgery. Body weights after ovariectomy showed a rapid increase for four postoperative weeks, paralleled by a sharp increase in food hoarding. During the fifth and sixth weeks, when body weights had stabilised at a higher level, hoarding activity reverted to preoperative levels. Daily intramuscular administration of oestradiol benzoate (2.0 micrograms or 25 micrograms/day for five days) counteracted the increases in body weight and hoarding activity. Progesterone (0.5 mg/day) and testosterone (0.5 mg/day) were without significant effect. The increased hoarding activity after ovariectomy is an indication of a rise in the defended level of body weight, and supports earlier suggestions that oestrogen lowers the physiological setting about which body weight is regulated. Paradoxical findings that non-deprived intact females hoard more, not less, than males are considered in the light of nonregulatory constraints on body weight which would affect hoarding by shifting body weights above, or below regulated levels.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

The distinctiveness of compulsive hoarding from obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The present study investigated the relation of compulsive hoarding to other obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms in a sample of 162 patients with OCD. Obsessions and compulsions reported on the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM-IV were submitted to an exploratory factor analysis. Results suggested a four-factor model: "Certainty," "Contamination," "Obsessions," and "Numbers/Ordering." Hoarding did not load on any factor. The sample was divided into three groups: pure hoarding, nonhoarding OCD, and mixed OCD and hoarding. The hoarding group endorsed significantly less anxiety, worry, stress, and negative affect on self-report measures than the mixed and nonhoarding groups. Although hoarding sometimes functions as a compulsion among individuals with OCD, hoarding in the absence of other OCD symptoms may be a clinically distinct syndrome.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Fasting-induced increases in food hoarding are dependent on the foraging-effort level.

Two strategies that have evolved to help animals meet energy demands are increases in body fat and in hoarded food. Reliance on each varies, but both are characterized by energy stored in excess of current demands for future use. Fasted Siberian hamsters decrease their lipid stores and, upon refeeding, food hoarding rather than food intake increases. Here, we tested the effect of foraging-effort level on fasting-induced increases in food hoarding and whether decreases in total body fat or individual fat pad masses were associated with the hoarding increases. This was accomplished by housing female Siberian hamsters in a foraging/hoarding system where they earned food pellets upon completion of a programmed number of wheel revolutions (10, 75 or 200 per 75-mg pellet), or had no foraging requirement (free food and an active or blocked running wheel). After baseline, half the hamsters in each group were food deprived for 32 h and then refed (control hamsters were killed after the fast without refeeding). Fasted-refed hamsters increased foraging and food hoarding, especially at the lowest foraging effort, but not food intake, with few exceptions. These responses became progressively smaller as foraging effort increased. Fasting induced similar losses in carcass lipid across foraging efforts, but the lipid loss was not uniform across the fat pads and was not clearly related to hoard size. Collectively, the fasting-induced, increased food hoarding may be triggered by an overall change in energy metabolism rather than by a general or fat-pad-specific decrease in lipid stores.

Adipose Tissue↗