Hoarding Older Adults

Inclusion Criteria

Participants must be between the ages of 60 - 85 years old and meet clinical criteria for Compulsive Hoarding (CH) developed by the Steketee and Frost (2000) research group. These criteria include:

• significant amount of clutter in active living spaces
• the urge to collect, buy, or acquire things
• an extreme reluctance to part with items
• clutter accumulation that causes distress or interferes with functioning
• symptom duration of at least 6 months
• the reluctance to part with items is not accounted for by other psychiatric conditions.

To be enrolled, patients must have:

• a score of 20 or greater on the University of California, Los Angeles Hoarding Severity Scale (UHSS)
• 40 or greater on the Savings Inventory-Revised (SI-R)
• severity rating of 4 or higher on the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule (ADIS-IV) rating scales for clutter and difficulty discarding
• and diagnosis confirmed at a consensus conference including at least two licensed professionals with expertise in CH (myself and at least one mentor).

Exclusion Criteria

• Individuals with moderate to severe cognitive deficits (scores below 23 on the MMSE) will be excluded.
• Prospective participants must not have active substance abuse problems.
• Participants will also be excluded if they are currently in other forms of psychotherapy.
• Participants must have no change in any psychotropic medications for at least three months prior to the initial assessment.
• Patients with current psychosis or mania will be excluded.
• Mood and anxiety disorders are permitted as long as compulsive hoarding is the primary diagnosis.
• Participants will are not eligible if they have active suicidal ideation, those participants will be given immediate medical or mental health attention.