“Animal hoarding” may provide comfort to people who struggle to form relationships

Consistent with the cultural archetype of a “cat lady”, two thirds of the animal hoarders were women By Alex Fradera The latest version of psychiatry’s principal diagnostic manual (the DSM-V) defines Hoarding Disorder as a psychopathology where the collection of items significantly impacts the person’s functioning, as they find it difficult and indeed painful to discard the items, creating congestion within the home and encouraging poor hygiene and accidents. However not only objects, but also living things can be collected pathologically, popularly enshrined in the notion of a “cat lady”. According to the psychiatric manual, this is just a special case of hoarding. But a team of psychologists from the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul has investigated people who hoard animals, and in their new paper in Psychiatry Research they make the case that it ought to be considered a distinct illness. Elisa Arrienti Ferreira and her colleagues investigated animal hoarding cases in the city of Porto Alegre, following up a survey conducted by the city’s Secretariat for Animal Rights. Of 75 potential cases, they managed to reach residents in 48 dwellings, and from those, found 33 who agreed to participate and fit the diagnostic criteria for the animal subtype of hoarding. The team arrived with vets to check the conditions of animals, they also surveyed the conditions of the residence and interviewed the animal hoarders about their lives. The conditions ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Mental health Source Type: blogs