Acceptability of Treatments and Services for Individuals with Hoarding Behaviors.

Objective: To explore the acceptability of currently available treatments and services for individuals who self-report hoarding behaviors.

Method: Between 10/2013 and 8/2014, participants were invited to complete an online survey that provided them descriptions of eleven treatments and services for hoarding behaviors and asked them to evaluate their acceptability using quantitative (0 [not at all acceptable] -10 [completely acceptable]) Likert scale ratings. The definition of acceptability for a given resource was an average Likert scale score of six or greater. Two well-validated self-report measures assessed hoarding symptom severity: the Saving Inventory-Revised and the Clutter Image Rating Scale.

Results: Two hundred and seventy two participants who self-reported having hoarding behaviors completed the questionnaire. Analyses focused on the 73% of responders (n=203) who reported clinically significant hoarding behaviors (i.e., Saving Inventory-Revised scores of ≥40). The three most acceptable treatments were individual cognitive behavioral therapy (6.2 ±3.1 on the Likert scale), professional organizing service (6.1 ±3.2), and use of a self-help book (6.0 ±3.0).

Conclusion: In this sample of individuals with self-reported clinically significant hoarding behaviors (n=203), only 3 out of 11 treatments and services for hoarding were deemed acceptable using an score. While needing replication, these findings indicate the need to design more acceptable treatments and services to engage clients and maximize treatment outcomes for hoarding disorder.