Saturday, March 5, 2011

Hoarding a growing problem in East Iowa

by Steve Gravelle

“It just seems like more and more of our clients have an issue with hoarding,” said Michele Baughan, care connections director for The Heritage Agency on Aging in Cedar Rapids.

Defined as collecting or failing to dispose of worthless items to the extent it causes stress, most often in the inability to use rooms for their intended purpose, serious hoarding may be present in as many as 2 percent of the population, according to the International OCD Foundation.

“It’s not just messiness,” said Nancee Blum, adjunct faculty member at the University of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine psychiatry department. “The behavior causes significant stress or impairment in functioning.”

Hoarding was considered for years to be a manifestation of obsessive-compulsive disorder, but the psychiatric profession is revising its diagnostic manual to separate the two, said Blum..." More


No comments: