Recognizing and Treating Hoarding Disorder: How Much Is Too Much?

by Carol A. Mathews

The first clinical guide to this psychiatric illness, officially recognized by the DSM in 2013. Everybody has heard the statements “she’s a pack rat” or “he’s a hoarder,” but how many of us really know what that means? Pathological hoarding was first formally conceptualized as a syndrome separate from OCD in the early 1990s, yet it wasn’t until 2013 that hoarding received formal psychiatric diagnostic criteria in the DSM.
How can a mental health professional who sees clients in an office determine if hoarding is a factor in a client’s life? Here, Carol Mathews provides readers with the first-ever comprehensive clinical book on hoarding, covering every aspect of the disorder. Topics epidemiology and impact; screening tools and clinical interview tools for assessment; differential diagnosis and co-occurring disorders; when to suspect mild cognitive impairment and dementia; hoarding behaviors in children; how to differentiate normal keeping of items from hoarding; animal hoarding; the neurobiology of hoarding disorder; treatments, both psychopharmacological and otherwise; self-help options; and the impact of hoarding on the family.   5 illustrations

304 pages, Hardcover

Published November 10, 2020

Reviews

[Lauren Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recognizing and Treating Hoarding Disorder: How Much is Too Much? is a 2021 publication of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, in which Dr. Carol A. Mathews analyzes the latest clinical research concerning hoarding disorder and combines that evaluation with explanations of practical applications of the research to the provision of medical and other services to people suffering from the illness. I've never before written a book review in which my first recommendation is "Read the Epilogue first." But the Epilogue is an extremely well-written summary of Recognizing which provides a valuable guide to the book's contents. Recognizing is a dense, in some instances highly technical reference work. It is not necessarily intended for non-medical personnel, although any human services provider who works with hoarding clients is likely to find exciting material nonetheless. I hope it will be repeatedly updated as research continues to build concerning hoarding's challenges.

Lauren Williams, CPO, Owner, Casual Uncluttering LLC, Woodinville, WA USA

[Tori]

I read this one out of the same rubbernecking impulse that might make you read TLC's Hoarders, so I'm not giving it a star rating. It is intended for clinicians, and I think someone who is hoping to use it for self-help or to understand a loved one might find it frustrating. I skimmed some chapters because they did not suit my needs, particularly the chapters about pharmaceutical interventions for hoarding.

However, I felt like I learned a lot and developed a lot of empathy and understanding for hoarding disorder. I also enjoyed myself reading. Normally I would try to evaluate how well a book like this portrays disability, or how stigmatizing it is, but that is really hard to do with hoarding because it is so stigmatized, and public portrayals are so awful that I feel like it makes it harder to calibrate. I think it's definitely possible to do better than Recognizing and Treating Hoarding Disorder in humanizing portrayals of hoarding and the people who live with it, but I also think it's a huge step up from other things you might have seen.

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️ — informative

There was a lot more in this book about hoarding disorder than I thought I was getting, but only a small part of it seemed helpful to what I really wanted to get out of this book. I realize it’s important to understand the background of hoarding disorder, but I think most people who are reading this book are looking for treatment options. This book basically said “yes there’s treatment options,” but didn’t go into much detail about them. Instead, it pointed me in the direction of another book for me to read for that information…