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Huge news.
Hoarding officially proposed for DSM-5.
Comments from public wanted.
Reply to their website by 20 April 2010.The DSM is the official manual of mental illness diagnosis
in the USA.
Version 5 is being written.
They want feedback from the public.
Post comments onto their DSM-5 website.The link for reading the proposal and commenting is here:
www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=398Proposal for defining "hoarding" in DSM-5:
Paraphrasing and summarizing as best I can:
Main criteria:-
You have have persistent difficulty parting with possessions
(regardless of whether you are an acquirer or not).
This persistent difficulty is due to: - strong urges to save items
and/or
- distress
and/or
- indecision.
[/blockquote][/li][li]
This persistent difficulty parting with possessions
creates excessive clutter
that prevents normal use of your active living areas --
including active areas of home, office, car, backyard
(regardless of whether you see it as a problem or not).
[/li][li]
This significantly stresses/impacts
your physical and/or emotional function in life
-- such as physical safety, or social or employment issues
(regardless of whether you see this as a problem or not).[/li][/ul]
One of the most important points ...
They are considering giving hoarding its own classification ...
and NOT make it part of OCD or OCPD.
This is a draft copy.
The DSM-5 won't be completed until the year 2013
... but is hoarding has been "officially proposed"
and will get serious consideration for
- inclusion in the main manual
OR
- inclusion in the "appendix for further research".
Comments from the PUBLIC
(that means you! )
will be taken up until April 20, 2010.
Severity:Severity regarding of Level of Hoarding:Severity would be based on a "self-report" hoarding scale developed by
"Dr. Tolin et al" in 2008.
Is there such a scale in the "Buried in Treasures" workbook?
It doesn't give the details, but I'm guessing it would be similar to
Frost and Steketee's self-report hoarding scale here:
www.ocfoundation.info/hoarding/docs/Measurement-of-compulsive-hoarding-survey-02.pdfSeverity regarding Level of Awareness/Denial:Your level of awareness or denial about your hoarding
is called your "insight".
To test your insight, they want to use the
"Brown Assessment of Beliefs Scale"
which was developed by the Brown University Department of Psychiatry.
Varies from having good insight into your problem
to being delusional that you have any problem at all.
Full Details:www.dsm5.org/ProposedRevisions/Pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=398IMPORTANT: on each tab of the hoarding section
- Proposed Revision
- Rationale
- Severity
-- on each of those tabs is a specific link for commenting
on the specific topic of that TAB.
Something that may be of interest:
(Hard to paraphrase, but I will try)
The DSM-5 proposal seems to be saying:
- If other people, such as family or authorities ... always have to intervene on an ongoing basis to make your home "uncluttered"
- AND you meet other criteria
then you probably have the hoarding disorder.
You can't say "My home is clean and therefore I'm not a hoarder" ... if you have such difficulty disposing of possessions that only OTHER people can discard them for you.
