Major depressive disorder is the most common comorbid mental illness in people with hoarding disorder, a study in the Journal of Psychiatric Research has found.
Luis Sordo Vieira, Ph.D., of the University of Florida and colleagues examined data from adults who participated in the Brain Health Registry (BHR), a large online research registry that asks participants questions about their medical, psychiatric, and neurological histories and to complete questionnaires about a variety of conditions.
The researchers first focused on 252 BHR participants (average age: 61 years) who received a thorough clinical assessment for psychiatric disorders; of this group 135 participants had hoarding disorder and 117 participants did not. Among participants with hoarding disorder, 61.5% had major depressive disorder, 31.9% had generalized anxiety disorder, and 22.2% had panic disorder, compared with 28.2%, 10.3%, and 9.4%, respectively, of those who did not have hoarding disorder. Furthermore, 34.8% of those with hoarding disorder had both major depressive disorder and an anxiety disorder (including but not limited to generalized anxiety disorder), compared with 12.8% of participants without hoarding disorder. Among those who had hoarding disorder and generalized anxiety disorder specifically, 72% also had major depressive disorder.
The researchers then analyzed the questionnaire responses from the larger BHR sample (15,978 adults; average age: 62 years). As with the 252 participants who received clinical assessments, major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder were the most common comorbid mental health conditions in people with hoarding disorder.
When the researchers analyzed the data further, they found that generalized anxiety disorder did not have a direct relationship with hoarding disorder. Rather, the relationship between generalized anxiety disorder and hoarding disorder was mediated by major depressive disorder.
These findings “may provide hints to the underlying shared biological underpinnings of these disorders,” the researchers wrote.
For related information, see the Psychiatric News article “Hoarding: Ownership Gone Awry.”
(Image: iStock/Del Henderson Jr)
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