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One in 50 people in Singapore will hoard in their lifetime, a recent study showed.
The study, Hoarding in an Asian Population: Prevalence, Correlates, Disability and Quality of Life, was led by Adjunct Assistant Professor Mythily Subramaniam of the Institute of Mental Health’s (IMH) research division. It was published in ANNALS last November. ANNALS is the official medical journal of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore.
Of the 6,616 respondents, 0.8 percent had also showed hoarding behaviour in the last 12 months.
"Hoarding is defined as the acquisition of, and inability to discard items even though they appear to others to have no value," the study said.
"The objectives of the study were to establish the prevalence of hoarding behaviour among the general population and among individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in a cross-sectional study conducted in Singapore."
The lifetime prevalence of hoarding behaviour among those with OCD was 22.6 percent.
It was the first to be done in Singapore.
The respondents were surveyed between December 2009 and December 2010 and were asked the question, “Did you ever have a time in your life when you repeatedly carried out any of the following behaviours — always having to save things to the point where you could not throw away things that you no longer needed or cared about?” The survey was conducted as part of the Singapore Mental Health Study.
The researchers said that Singapore's prevalence of 2 percent is lower than the 4 percent reported in studies in other countries. Hoarding is also less prevalent than major depressive disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), which affect 5.8 percent and 3 percent of the adult population, respectively.
But IMH does not keep figures for hoarding as there might be other underlying conditions which are the cause. For example, Dr Kelvin Ng, associate consultant at IMH’s department of Community Psychiatry, told Today that patients with schizophrenia may hear voices to ask them to hoard but anti-psychotic medication can stop the voices and the hoarding.
But for patients with with intellectual disability and autism where there is no treatment, they may have have idiosyncratic behaviours or obsessional interests which cause them to hoard.
Dr Ng is not part of the study.
The study also found that hoarders without OCD "had a higher quality of life versus those with both OCD and hoarding, though still lower than that of the general population". Hoarders without OCD were also less likely to be obsessed with ordering and contamination, which is the persistent fear of coming into contact with things, real or imagined, that are filthy or harmful.
The study did not find an association between age and hoarding.
Dr Ng said that the IMH's patients which go in due to hoarding are referred from community partners such as the Housing and Development Board, grassroots organisations or family members.
http://therealsingapore.com/content/imh-study-one-50-people-singapore-hoard-their-lifetime
The study, Hoarding in an Asian Population: Prevalence, Correlates, Disability and Quality of Life, was led by Adjunct Assistant Professor Mythily Subramaniam of the Institute of Mental Health’s (IMH) research division. It was published in ANNALS last November. ANNALS is the official medical journal of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore.
Of the 6,616 respondents, 0.8 percent had also showed hoarding behaviour in the last 12 months.
"Hoarding is defined as the acquisition of, and inability to discard items even though they appear to others to have no value," the study said.
"The objectives of the study were to establish the prevalence of hoarding behaviour among the general population and among individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in a cross-sectional study conducted in Singapore."
The lifetime prevalence of hoarding behaviour among those with OCD was 22.6 percent.
It was the first to be done in Singapore.
The respondents were surveyed between December 2009 and December 2010 and were asked the question, “Did you ever have a time in your life when you repeatedly carried out any of the following behaviours — always having to save things to the point where you could not throw away things that you no longer needed or cared about?” The survey was conducted as part of the Singapore Mental Health Study.
The researchers said that Singapore's prevalence of 2 percent is lower than the 4 percent reported in studies in other countries. Hoarding is also less prevalent than major depressive disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), which affect 5.8 percent and 3 percent of the adult population, respectively.
But IMH does not keep figures for hoarding as there might be other underlying conditions which are the cause. For example, Dr Kelvin Ng, associate consultant at IMH’s department of Community Psychiatry, told Today that patients with schizophrenia may hear voices to ask them to hoard but anti-psychotic medication can stop the voices and the hoarding.
But for patients with with intellectual disability and autism where there is no treatment, they may have have idiosyncratic behaviours or obsessional interests which cause them to hoard.
Dr Ng is not part of the study.
The study also found that hoarders without OCD "had a higher quality of life versus those with both OCD and hoarding, though still lower than that of the general population". Hoarders without OCD were also less likely to be obsessed with ordering and contamination, which is the persistent fear of coming into contact with things, real or imagined, that are filthy or harmful.
The study did not find an association between age and hoarding.
Dr Ng said that the IMH's patients which go in due to hoarding are referred from community partners such as the Housing and Development Board, grassroots organisations or family members.
http://therealsingapore.com/content/imh-study-one-50-people-singapore-hoard-their-lifetime
