High levels of loneliness in people with hoarding disorder

Abstract

Attachment theory suggests that hoarding is an attempt at compensating for unmet relatedness needs. We therefore expect high loneliness levels in hoarding disorder (HD). While previous studies have shown a positive association between hoarding and loneliness in non-clinical samples, few studies have examined loneliness levels in clinical HD samples. In Study 1, we examined loneliness in a treatment-seeking HD sample (n = 39). Results showed that 87.2% of HD sufferers reported high loneliness levels, which was significantly higher than loneliness rates in community samples. Loneliness was positively associated with hoarding severity even after controlling for depression. In Study 2, we examined loneliness in MTurk workers with clinical levels of hoarding (high hoarding [HH] group; n = 305) compared to MTurk workers with low hoarding symptoms (LH group; n = 775). Results showed high loneliness levels in 77.7% of participants in the HH group compared to 36.8% in the LH group. Differences remained significant for HH vs LH groups matched on depression. The positive association between loneliness and hoarding was also significant even after controlling for age, gender, marital status, and depression. Our results underscore the importance of assessing and addressing loneliness in the HD treatment.