[SEL] Fw: Household Junk

[Reg & Margaret Ingold]

>  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