Exposure to stressful and traumatic life events in hoarding: Comparison to clinical controls

AbstractBackgroundIndividuals with hoarding report stressful and traumatic life events at an elevated rate compared with those with obsessive‐compulsive disorder and healthy controls, but have not been compared with other clinical groups. This study compared rates of traumatic life events between those with clinically significant hoarding, anxiety disorders, or posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), hypothesizing that rates would be higher in the hoarding and PTSD groups than the anxiety group.MethodsRates of traumatic and stressful events were compared across groups.ResultsAll comparisons across groups on types of events were significant (partial‐eta squared 0.051–0.162). The hoarding group endorsed significantly more crime‐related events but similar rates of other events as compared to the PTSD and anxiety disorder groups.ConclusionThese findings suggest that many stressful and traumatic life events are not uniquely elevated in hoarding when compared with other clinical populations.

Exposure to stressful and traumatic life events in hoarding: Comparison to clinical controls Journal Articles