Indecisiveness And Hoarding

Hoarding behavior and the problems associated with it have been the subject of an increasing amount of research. Early theorizing has suggested that problems with decision-making constitute a core feature, yet relatively few studies have examined this in depth. In the present study, indecisiveness was examined in large samples of adults who self-identified as having significant hoarding problems (n = 887), adult children of such individuals (n = 295), and spouses of such individuals (n = 120). People with hoarding problems reported more decision-making problems than children or spouses, and considerably more than community controls from other studies. Adult children of people with hoarding reported more indecisiveness than spouses, suggesting that this characteristic runs in families. Among the hoarding group, decision-making problems were correlated with all three core features of hoarding (excessive acquisition, difficulty discarding, clutter/disorganization), and the associations were independent of depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms. Higher indecisiveness scores were also associated with earlier age of onset of hoarding independent of hoarding severity. Depression was associated mainly with the negative consequences of hoarding, while OC symptoms were related to the excessive acquisition of free things. Indecisiveness may be an important marker or nonhoarding endophenotype for hoarding and deserves closer examination