Hoarding and mood disorder: A case report

Hoarding is the excessive acquisition of possessions and failure to use or discard them even if the items are worthless or hazardous. The hoarder may believe that the hoarded items are very valuable, know that the accumulated items are useless, or attach a strong personal value to items. It is not clear whether hoarding is an isolated disorder or rather a symptom of another condition such as obsessive compulsive disorder. Hoarding seems to involve some neurological mechanisms which are detected by brain imaging studies. In this case report a patient with mood disorder whose predominant symptom was hoarding is presented and the status of literature about hoarding is reviewed.