- Joined
- Aug 18, 2002
- Messages
- 19,408
There is now studies being done into the underlying issues of the animal collectors:
forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10846
Link is obsolete. The current link is:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/animal-collectors.10846/
and now people are studying the hoarders and it appears it isn't as simple as people assumed:
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=5218
Emps
Link is obsolete. The current link is:
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/animal-collectors.10846/
and now people are studying the hoarders and it appears it isn't as simple as people assumed:
Hoarding not a usual compulsion
Excessive hoarding may be a distinct type of obsessive-compulsive disorder not treatable in the standard way, research suggests.
Hoarding and saving has long been thought to be a classic symptom of OCD.
But an American Journal of Psychiatry study found hoarders show different brain activity patterns.
University of California Los Angeles researchers say their work suggests some hoarders may have been receiving inappropriate treatment.
OCD is an anxiety disorder in which sufferers are compelled by irrational fears and thoughts to repeat seemingly needless actions over and over again.
OCD is probably a mix of different disorders
Dr Naomi Fineberg
It is often associated with excessive hand washing, cleaning or repeated checking.
The cause of OCD is not fully understood, but it has been linked to an imbalance of the brain signalling chemical serotonin and is often treated with drugs that alter the way the brain processes this chemical.
Many experts believe excessive hoarding to be another manifestation of the condition.
However, researcher Dr Sanjaya Saxena believes that his work challenges this view.
Biology
He said: "Our work shows that hoarding and saving compulsions long associated with OCD may spring from unique, previously unrecognized neurobiological malfunctions that standard treatments do not necessarily address.
"In addition, the results emphasize the need to rethink how we categorize psychiatric disorders.
"Diagnosis and treatment should be driven by biology rather than symptoms."
The UCLA team carried out sophisticated PET scans to measure brain activity in 45 adults with OCD, of which 12 were hoarders, and 17 people without mental health problems.
The hoarders showed a unique pattern of activity, including less activity in brain regions known as the posterior cingulate gyrus and cuneus.
It is estimated that hoarding and saving symptoms are found in up to 30% of patients currently recognised as having OCD. These people are often also indecisive and perfectionists.
Standard therapies for OCD often seem to have little effect at reducing these particular symptoms.
Failure to come forward
Dr Naomi Fineberg, an expert in OCD at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Welwyn Garden City, told BBC News Online that the finding was "no surprise".
"When you are looking at obsessional patients, hoarders seem to stand apart, and they don't respond well - if at all - to standard anti-obsessional treatments, which makes you think they might be a bit different.
"OCD is probably a mix of different disorders. In fact there is probably a fairly broad spectrum of obsessional disorders."
Dr Fineberg said many hoarders did not come forward for treatment.
Unlike other forms of OCD in which patients often recognise their behaviour as irrational and senseless, hoarders tended to believe they were acting rationally, and did not need help.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/3769677.stm
Published: 2004/06/03 00:19:55 GMT
UCLA PET Study Finds Neurobiology of Hoarders Differs From Other OCD Patients; Findings Open Opportunity for Improving Treatment
Date: June 1, 2004
Contact: Dan Page ( [email protected] )
Phone: 310-794-2265
A PET imaging study conducted at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute indicates the neurobiology of America's estimated 1 million compulsive hoarders differs significantly from people with other obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms. The findings indicate that different medications could improve treatment success.
Detailed in the June 4 edition of the peer-reviewed American Journal of Psychiatry, the study is the first to examine the neurobiology of people with compulsive hoarding and saving, one of several symptom clusters associated with OCD.
The study identified lower brain activity in the anterior cingulate gyrus of compulsive hoarders, compared with other OCD patients. This brain structure helps govern decision-making, focused attention, motivation and problem-solving, cognitive functions that are frequently impaired in compulsive hoarders. The study also found a correlation between severity of hoarding symptoms and lower brain activity in the anterior cingulate gyrus across all of the study subjects with OCD.
In addition, the hoarding group showed decreased brain activity in the posterior cingulate gyrus compared to healthy control subjects who had no OCD symptoms. The posterior cingulate gyrus is involved in spatial orientation and memory. The decreased activity in hoarders may explain why they have difficulty with excessive clutter and fear of losing belongings.
The findings also demonstrate how neurobiological testing could improve diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders. Lower activity in the anterior and posterior cingulate areas may not only underlie compulsive hoarding symptoms, but also their poor response to standard treatments for OCD. The results suggest cognitive-enhancing medications commonly used in patients with age-related dementia may be more effective at treating compulsive hoarding behaviors than standard OCD medications such as serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
"Our work shows that hoarding and saving compulsions long associated with OCD may spring from unique, previously unrecognized neurobiological malfunctions that standard treatments do not necessarily address," said Dr. Sanjaya Saxena, lead author and director of the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute's OCD Research Program.
"In addition, the results emphasize the need to rethink how we categorize psychiatric disorders. Diagnosis and treatment should be driven by biology rather than symptoms. Our findings suggest that the compulsive hoarding syndrome may be a neurobiologically distinct variant of OCD," said Saxena, an associate professor-in-residence of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine.
Hoarding and saving behaviors are associated with a number of psychiatric disorders, including age-related dementia and cognitive impairment, but they are most commonly associated with OCD. An estimated 7 million to 8 million people in the United States suffer from OCD, with compulsive hoarding present in up to one-third. Compulsive hoarding is the primary source of impairment in 10 percent to 20 percent of OCD patients.
Compulsive hoarding is one of several symptom clusters associated with OCD. Others include contamination fears that lead to cleaning compulsions, aggressive and harm-related obsessions that lead to doubt and checking, and symmetry and order concerns. Each of these symptom clusters may be associated with a distinct pattern of brain activity. Standard OCD treatments, including serotonin reuptake inhibitor medications, typically are less effective in OCD patients with prominent compulsive hoarding behaviors.
The UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute study involved 62 adults: 12 with OCD who had prominent compulsive hoarding behaviors, 33 with OCD who had mild or no symptoms of hoarding, and 17 control subjects who had no OCD symptoms. The researchers used positron emission tomography (PET) to measure brain glucose metabolism, a marker of regional brain activity, in each subject and compared the results.
Upcoming studies at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute will use both PET and magnetic resonance imaging scanning to look for structural and functional abnormalities in the brains of subjects with compulsive hoarding and other types of OCD as the team seeks to further refine and understand these differences. The research team also will examine the effectiveness of newer medications that better address the unique brain activity found in subjects with compulsive hoarding behaviors.
More information about ongoing and future research at the OCD Research Program is available at (310) 794-7305.
Funding for the study was provided by grants and awards from the National Institute of Mental Health, the Obsessive-Compulsive Foundation, the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression, the Department of Energy, and a private donor.
Other members of the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute research team included Dr. Arthur L. Brody, Karron M. Maidment, Erlyn C. Smith, Narineh Zohrabi, Elyse Katz, Stephanie K. Baker and Dr. Lewis R. Baxter Jr.
The OCD Research Program at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute conducts research on functional brain imaging, medication treatment, cognitive-behavioral therapy, neuropsychological deficits, genetics, and functional outcome of OCD, major depressive disorder, and OCD Spectrum Disorders such as body dysmorphic disorder and Tourette's syndrome.
The UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute is an interdisciplinary research and education institute devoted to the understanding of complex human behavior, including the genetic, biological, behavioral and sociocultural underpinnings of normal behavior, and the causes and consequences of neuropsychiatric disorders.
Online resources:
· UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute: http://www.npi.ucla.edu
· UCLA OCD Research Program: http://www.mentalhealth.ucla.edu/projects/anxiety/ocdresearch.htm
· David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA: http://www.medsch.ucla.edu
-UCLA-
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=5218
Emps
Last edited by a moderator: