Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 12, 2026

Assessing Burrowing, Nest Construction, and Hoarding in Mice
Published on: January 5, 2012
Characteristics of hoarding in older adults
Gretchen J Diefenbach1, Jennifer DiMauro, Randy Frost
1Anxiety Disorders Center, The Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital, Hartford, CT; Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.
Objective:
This study determined the clinical characteristics of late-life hoarding disorder (HD).
Methods:
Older adults (age 60 and older) with HD (n = 55) and without psychiatric diagnoses (n = 39) were compared on psychiatric, functional, cognitive, and health-related measures. Associations between age and clinical characteristics in a large sample of mixed age (n = 210; age range: 20-78) participants with HD were also determined.
Results:
Individuals with late-life HD were characterized by substantial impairments in psychiatric, functional, cognitive, and medical status. Health risks (e.g., risks of falls and fire) were also common. However, older age was generally not associated with increased severity of hoarding or other clinical correlates (with the exception of one global clinician-rated measure of severity).
Conclusions:
Late-life HD is characterized by considerable morbidity and health risks, and these characteristics may be consistent across the lifespan in cross-sectional mixed-age samples of individuals with HD.
Related Concept Videos
Personality Disorders: Dependent and Obsessive-Compulsive
Dependent Personality Disorder
Dependent personality disorder is characterized by an excessive reliance on others to manage various aspects of life. Individuals with this disorder often struggle with...
Alzheimer Disease l: Introduction
Drug Dosing: Geriatric Patients
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Pharmacodynamics in Geriatric Patients: Effects of Age
Horney's Sociocultural Approach
