Developing a measure of beliefs about items in hoarding disorder (BIHD)

The beliefs about their items held by those experiencing hoarding disorder (HD) have been conceptualised as motivating and perpetuating factors.

This paper presents a measure named Beliefs about Items in Hoarding Disorder: designed to identify the presence and strength of beliefs about their items in HD to aid routine assessment and formulation.

Participants (n=226) who met the clinical threshold for HD completed a battery of questionnaire items based on previous measures of cognition in hoarding and qualitative research into beliefs held by people with HD about their items, which were subsequently analysed using factor analysis to refine the tool for clinical use.

The findings of the analysis indicated three factors: items create emotional attachment and safety, items represent parts of me and my life, and items are useful and should not be wasted.

This new measure, Beliefs about Items in Hoarding Disorder, provides an alternative to existing HD measures that do not include all the beliefs deemed important by more recent research and the sample in the current study. This tool has the potential to encourage open conversations with people experiencing HD about their beliefs and how these may be maintaining problems with hoarding. Further work is needed to support the reliability and validity of this measure in clinical practice, but presents an updated and novel tool to assist in developing a more comprehensive understanding of HD.