Hoarding pet animals in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Background Although severe hoarding symptoms have been considered rare among obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) samples, the prevalence of animal hoarding in OCD is unknown. To help clarifying this issue, we searched for cases of animal hoarding among patients attending a university OCD clinic (n=420). Methods Chart review. Results Only two patients from our sample exhibited animal hoarding (<0.5%) and only one of them presented additional obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Both cases also collected inanimate objects, presented low insight, exhibited poor response to serotonin reuptake inhibitors and did not adhere to therapy. Conclusions There seems to be a lack of relationship between animal hoarding and OCD. However, further studies with larger numbers of patients are needed to better define their psychopathological profile and more appropriate nosological insertion.

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