The UCLA Hoarding Severity Scale: development and validation.

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology
• Mental Health Assessment

Background:

• Accurate assessment of Hoarding Disorder (HD) severity and functional impairment is crucial for effective management.
• The UCLA Hoarding Severity Scale (UHSS) was developed to measure core HD symptoms and associated features like indecisiveness and procrastination.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate the UCLA Hoarding Severity Scale (UHSS) as a reliable measure for Hoarding Disorder.
• To assess the UHSS's ability to capture core symptoms, associated features, and functional impairment in HD patients.

Main Methods:

• The UHSS was administered to 62 patients diagnosed with HD and 65 healthy controls.
• Hoarding symptom severity was also measured using the Saving Inventory-Revised (SI-R) for comparison.

Main Results:

• The UHSS demonstrated significant internal consistency (Cronbach's α=.70).
• Factor analysis identified three key components: associated features/functional impairment, clutter/social impairment, and discarding difficulties/acquisition.
• UHSS scores correlated significantly with SI-R scores, and HD patients differed significantly from controls on both measures.

Conclusions:

• The UHSS exhibits internal consistency, construct validity, convergent validity, and known groups discriminant validity.
• The scale effectively measures core symptoms, associated features, and functional impairment in Hoarding Disorder.
• A validated clinician-administered scale like the UHSS enhances comprehensive and accurate clinical assessment for HD.