A comparison of hoarding disorder with and without comorbid major depressive disorder

Hoarding disorder (HD) involves urges to save items, difficulty discarding, and excessive clutter. Hoarding symptoms onset early, but may be more common in older adults. HD in late life often co-occurs with depressive symptoms and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The current study examined demographic characteristics and hoarding symptoms in older adults with HD with and without comorbid MDD. We examined group differences with independent samples t-tests and chi square analyses and associations between demographic variables, hoarding, and depression severity with Pearson correlations. Participants with comorbid MDD reported fewer years of education (t (54) = 3.01, p = .002) and greater severity on measures of hoarding symptoms (SI-R: t (55) = -2.09, p = 0.0208), clutter (CIR: t (55) = -1.92, p = 0.0298), and hoarding-related impairment (ADL-H: t (45) = -3.20, p = 0.0013). There were no significant group differences in age, gender, race, or marital status. Depression symptom severity was significantly correlated with measures of hoarding severity and impairment (SI-R: r = .47, p = .0002; ADL-H: r = .39, p = .0062); however, depression symptom severity was not significantly correlated with with self-reported clutter (CIR: r = .18, p = .168). Participants who were married reported significantly higher levels of depression (t (56) = 1.96, p = .028). Comorbid MDD and depression symptoms may contribute to greater hoarding severity and impairment. Future research should continue to examine how comorbid depression may affect treatment for patients with primary diagnoses of hoarding disorder.