New study out on Hoarding in adolescence!

The first study to present the prevalence comorbidity and heritability of hoarding in adolescents just came out in PLoS ONE. In this study, we report that 2% of Swedish 15-year olds report symptoms of hoarding including distress and/or impairment. This is quite surprising given that hoarding is considered to be a problem most common among the elderly. We also found that hoarding seldom co-occurs with OCD which supports the status of Hoarding Disorder, which has been separated from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder in the new DSM-5. Finally, using the twin design we were able to conclude that hoarding symptoms are heritable during adolescence but only in boys. In girls, the environment, both the shared, and non-shared between twins accounted for the variability in hoarding symptoms.

Our research group has been collaborating with the Swedish Twin Registry and Professor David Mataix-Cols on this paper and this partnership is only at its start. Keep following us to see what the incredible Swedish Twin data will tell us in the future!

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0069140

Ivanov VZ, Mataix-Cols D, Serlachius E, Lichtenstein P, Anckarsäter H, Chang Z, Hellner Gumpert C, Lundström S, Långström N, Rück C. (2013) Prevalence, Comorbidity and Heritability of Hoarding Symptoms in Adolescence: A Population Based Twin Study in 15-Year Olds. PLoS ONE 8(7): e69140.