[NJARC] Are they talking about radio collectors???

[John Dilks K2TQN]

This was in the New York Times.

Are they talking about radio collectors???
(Actually, I wouldn't know about this.)
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June 1, 2004

How Household Junk Can Grow Into Mountains

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR

People who compulsively hoard objects have singular patterns of brain
activity that distinguish them from other patients with
obsessive compulsive disorder, a new study finds.

Researchers say the study, based on brain scans of compulsive hoarders,
provides the first solid evidence that hoarding defines
a distinct subset of patients. The research might also open a door to
new treatments for the illness, which is often unaffected by
standard drugs.

"This adds to the evidence that O.C.D. is a heterogeneous disorder, not
a single entity," said Dr. Sanjaya Saxena, director of
the research program on the condition at the Neuropsychiatric Institute
at the University of California, Los Angeles. "More
specifically, it shows that compulsive hoarding may be a variant or
subtype that requires its own type of treatment."

Scientists have long been puzzled by pathological hoarding, which
afflicts up to 40 percent of the seven million to eight million
Americans with obsessive compulsive disorder. As a group, studies show,
excessive hoarders, who fill their houses with
accumulations of junk, usually newspapers, bags of old clothing and
lists, experience more anxiety, depression and social
disability than obsessive compulsive patients with other symptoms. The
hoarders are also less likely to seek help. Experts say
eviction notices or social workers often bring to light compulsive
hoarders' problems.

The new study, in The American Journal of Psychiatry today, compared 45
obsessive compulsive adults, including 12 hoarders,
with 17 healthy participants. Compulsive hoarders, compared with people
with other compulsive symptoms, had decreased
activity in the anterior cingulate, a brain structure involved in
decision making and problem solving.

The hoarders also showed less activation than the healthy subjects in
the posterior cingulate, an area involved in spatial
orientation, memory and emotion..

The findings, said Dr. Dennis L. Murphy of the National Institute of
Mental Health, who was not involved with the study, are the
first step toward defining "hoarding as not just a phenomenon, but as
something that might have a different basis in brain
activity."

Dr. Saxena said the study might explain why hoarders are so attached to
their possessions. Deciding what to keep and what to
discard is often a struggle. They are tormented by fears of throwing out
items that may be needed one day. Often, the objects
are kept in the open, stacked to the ceiling in the living room, the
kitchen or even on the bed, Dr. Saxena said. That may result
from the lower activity levels in brain regions that govern memory and
spatial orientation.

"It may have to do with the difficulty they have in their visual spatial
processing," he said. "And they may have some trouble
remembering where things are and feel that they need to have them in
sight."

Hoarders rarely respond to serotonin enhancers like Prozac, Luvox or
other standard drugs used to treat obsessive compulsive
disorder. The researchers said they were looking into the effectiveness
of newer drugs, including one that can increase activity in
the anterior cingulate.