The impact of coronavirus on individuals with problematic hoarding behaviours

Hoarding behavior and its association with mental health and functioning in a large youth sample

Hoarding behavior is prevalent in children and adolescents, yet clinicians do not routinely inquire about it and youth may not spontaneously report it due to stigma. It is unknown whether hoarding behavior, over and above obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS), is associated with major clinical factors in a general youth population. This observational study included N = 7054 youth who were not seeking help for mental health problems (ages 11-21, 54% female) and completed a structured interview that included evaluation of hoarding behavior and OCS, as a part of the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort between November 2009 and December 2011. We employed regression models with hoarding behavior and OCS (any/none) as independent variables, and continuous (linear regression) or binary (logistic regression) mental health measures as dependent variables. All models covaried for age, sex, race, and socioeconomic status. A total of 374 participants endorsed HB (5.3%), most of which reported additional OCS (n = 317). When accounting for OCS presence, hoarding behavior was associated with greater dimensional psychopathology burden (i.e., higher P-factor) (β = 0.19, p < .001), and with poorer functioning (i.e., lower score on the child global assessment scale) (β = - 0.07, p < .001). The results were consistent when modeling psychopathology using binary variables. The results remained significant in sensitivity analyses accounting for count of endorsed OCS and excluding participants who met criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder (n = 210). These results suggest that hoarding behavior among youth is associated with poorer mental health and functioning, independent of OCS. Brief hoarding-behavior assessments in clinical settings may prove useful given hoarding behavior's stigma and detrimental health associations.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the symptomatology and routine of medicated patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

OBJECTIVES

To study the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 on the routine of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and changes in symptoms and suicidal-related behavior, mainly in those with cleaning symptoms.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional study, 58 patients completed an online self-report questionnaire that included the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised, Coronavirus Stress and Traumatic Events Scale, Coronavirus Health Impact Survey, Beck Anxiety and Beck Depression inventories, and Suicide-Related Behaviors Questionnaire. Comparisons were made with another pre-pandemic sample (n=524) regarding the last three measures.

RESULTS

During the pandemic, the patients spent more days inside their homes (χ² = 33.39, p = 0.007), changed their alcohol consumption patterns (χ² = 87.6, p < 0.001), and increased social media usage (χ² = 68.83, p < 0.001). Participants with cleaning symptoms did not significantly differ from the others in relation to stress, anxiety/depressive symptoms, or suicidal-related behaviors. Finally, our sample did not differ from an equivalent OCD sample assessed before the pandemic in terms of anxiety and depressive symptom severity or suicidal-related behaviors.

CONCLUSION

Overall, patients with OCD showed no lifestyle changes associated with higher stress levels during the pandemic. Patients with and without cleaning symptoms and patients before and during the pandemic presented similar results.

Long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on obsessive-compulsive disorder

There is limited data on the long-term effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We report on the course of a cohort of individuals with OCD followed-up over a period of one year during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. A cohort of 240 individuals registered at a specialty OCD clinic was regularly followed-up using standardized rating tools at three months, six months, and one year into the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. These were compared with clinical ratings recorded in a comparable historical cohort of 207 individuals with OCD, followed up during a non-pandemic year. The pandemic and non-pandemic (historical control) cohorts did not differ in illness severity and rate of relapse. It was found that COVID-19-related anxiety declined over time. Among those patients who were treatment responders prior to the pandemic, COVID-19-related anxiety and non-adherence to medication predicted a relapse of symptoms. Contrary to our expectations, the rate of relapse and illness trajectory in the pandemic cohort did not differ from the non-pandemic cohort, suggesting that the pandemic did not impact our largely medication-adherent cohort. Adherence to treatment seemed to have a protective effect during the pandemic.

A "transatlantic" follow-up study of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

BACKGROUND

Obsessive-compulsive symptom fluctuations may be contingent on the number of stressful pandemic-related events and the resilience characterizing different cultures. We investigated the influence of the pandemic on symptom changes in a sample of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients from Brazil and Italy, two countries that were highly affected by the outbreak.

METHODS

Ninety-one OCD outpatients were evaluated at baseline and about one year later. Thirty of them were assessed in Brazil and 61 in Italy. Socio-demographic variables, symptoms' severity and the number of stressful pandemic-related events were collected. Comparisons between countries' samples were performed, and a linear regression examined whether the country of origin, demographic features and the number of stressful events were able to predict the symptoms' severity at the follow-up.

RESULTS

Brazilian patients experienced more stressful pandemic-related events than Italian patients (p = 0.018). However, along with higher age (p < 0.01) and increased severity of symptoms at baseline (p < 0.01), lower number of events predicted increased symptoms' severity after one year (p < 0.01). Country of origin was not a significant predictor of severity.

LIMITATIONS

Small number of subjects; lack of information regarding duration of illness; and potential sample differences between countries.

CONCLUSIONS

During the pandemic, the occurrence of more stressful pandemic-related events was associated with decreased severity of patients' OCD symptoms. Nevertheless, older patients and those with more severe symptoms seemed prone to exhibit increased OCD severity at follow-up.

Sustainable Management of Food Waste during COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights into Irrational Food Hoarding among Chinese Citizens

During the COVID-19 pandemic, food waste caused by excessive hoarding has accounted a large proportion of the total food waste in urban Chinese households, which indicates that reducing food hoarding has become key to managing household food waste. This study therefore explored the behavioral mechanisms underlying excessive food hoarding among citizens. Based on a sample set of 511 respondents surveyed in Beijing, Hefei, and Guiyang in July 2022, a PLS-SEM model was conducted using SmartPLS 3.0 software to simulate the decision-making process of food hoarding. The following results were found. First, among the households with hoarding, 66.37% had some degree of food waste. Second, hoarding preference was the direct predictor of hoarding behavior, which means that hoarding behavior can be effectively controlled by regulating preferences. Third, group influence including homology consistency and social network support, as well as psychological panic, both enhanced citizens' hoarding preference and induced hoarding behavior. Therefore, it is necessary to weaken group influence and try to help citizens overcome panic. Finally, food supply information release can not only alleviate citizens' psychological panic and weaken group influence, but also block the transformation of preference into behavior. The above results are of great importance for the design of management policies for food waste caused by irrational hoarding during the pandemic.