[SEL] Fw: Household Junk
Reg & Margaret Ingold
randmingold at hotkey.net.au
Thu Jun 3 04:22:01 PDT 2004
> How Household Junk Can Grow Into Mountains
>
> June 1, 2004
> By ANAHAD O'CONNOR
>
>
> People who compulsively hoard objects have singular
> patterns of brain activity that distinguish them from other
> patients with obsessive compulsive disorder, a new study
> finds.
>
> Researchers say the study, based on brain scans of
> compulsive hoarders, provides the first solid evidence that
> hoarding defines a distinct subset of patients. The
> research might also open a door to new treatments for the
> illness, which is often unaffected by standard drugs.
>
> "This adds to the evidence that O.C.D. is a heterogeneous
> disorder, not a single entity," said Dr. Sanjaya Saxena,
> director of the research program on the condition at the
> Neuropsychiatric Institute at the University of California,
> Los Angeles. "More specifically, it shows that compulsive
> hoarding may be a variant or subtype that requires its own
> type of treatment."
>
> Scientists have long been puzzled by pathological hoarding,
> which afflicts up to 40 percent of the seven million to
> eight million Americans with obsessive compulsive disorder.
> As a group, studies show, excessive hoarders, who fill
> their houses with accumulations of junk, usually
> newspapers, bags of old clothing and lists, experience more
> anxiety, depression and social disability than obsessive
> compulsive patients with other symptoms. The hoarders are
> also less likely to seek help. Experts say eviction notices
> or social workers often bring to light compulsive hoarders'
> problems.
>
> The new study, in The American Journal of Psychiatry today,
> compared 45 obsessive compulsive adults, including 12
> hoarders, with 17 healthy participants. Compulsive
> hoarders, compared with people with other compulsive
> symptoms, had decreased activity in the anterior cingulate,
> a brain structure involved in decision making and problem
> solving.
>
> The hoarders also showed less activation than the healthy
> subjects in the posterior cingulate, an area involved in
> spatial orientation, memory and emotion..
>
> The findings, said Dr. Dennis L. Murphy of the National
> Institute of Mental Health, who was not involved with the
> study, are the first step toward defining "hoarding as not
> just a phenomenon, but as something that might have a
> different basis in brain activity."
>
> Dr. Saxena said the study might explain why hoarders are so
> attached to their possessions. Deciding what to keep and
> what to discard is often a struggle. They are tormented by
> fears of throwing out items that may be needed one day.
> Often, the objects are kept in the open, stacked to the
> ceiling in the living room, the kitchen or even on the bed,
> Dr. Saxena said. That may result from the lower activity
> levels in brain regions that govern memory and spatial
> orientation.
>
> "It may have to do with the difficulty they have in their
> visual spatial processing," he said. "And they may have
> some trouble remembering where things are and feel that
> they need to have them in sight."
>
> Hoarders rarely respond to serotonin enhancers like Prozac,
> Luvox or other standard drugs used to treat obsessive
> compulsive disorder. The researchers said they were looking
> into the effectiveness of newer drugs, including one that
> can increase activity in the anterior cingulate.
>
>
>
ttp://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/01/health/psychology/01hoar.html?ex=108711005
> &ei=1&en=2350565b6ca925b0
>
>
> Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
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