[Hoarding disorder, symptom or separate disorder? Case report]

Hoarding or compulsive hoarding, a severe form of collectionism, is currently described in various psychiatric disorders, including the famous Diogenes syndrome. The lack of remission despite a correct treatment in a patient that we have followed in the brief therapy center in Geneva, has led us to carry out an extensive Medline review, which revealed several interesting points. It seems that excessive hoarding, with a prevalence of 2,3 to 4,6%, has received increasing interest and there is an actual debate of distinguishing hoarding from other disorders. Thus, this field requires further attention to better understand its phenomenology. This case report describes an excessive hoarding disorder confirming the complexity of this trouble and the possibility to consider it as an independent diagnosis.