As a clinical psychiatrist, this finding is of professional interest in terms of adjusting the assumptions I bring to bear when assessing and treating hoarders. But the more crucial impact is the questions the researchers raise about the basis for diagnostic classification. Lumping disorders by symptomatic appearance makes sense if you are trying to talk to your patients about the pattern and sources of their distress. If, however, it is biological adjustment that is your main concern, it has to be done differently.

: “New research into the brain patterns of compulsive hoarders shows the disorder may have been misclassified and victims could be getting the wrong treatment, U.S. scientists reported on Tuesday.

Brain scans show the biology of America’s estimated 1 million compulsive hoarders is significantly different to that of other people diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder, the team at the University of California Los Angeles found.

Hoarding is usually classified as obsessive-compulsive disorder, a catch-all term for a range of symptoms such as constantly repeating actions like handwashing or checking to make sure a stove is turned off.

‘Our work shows that hoarding and saving compulsions long associated with OCD may spring from unique, previously unrecognized neurobiological malfunctions that standard treatments do not necessarily address,’ Dr. Sanjaya Saxena, who led the study, said in a statement.

“In addition, the results emphasize the need to rethink how we categorize psychiatric disorders. Diagnosis and treatment should be driven by biology rather than symptoms,” Saxena added. ” (Yahoo! )