Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Some people turn their homes into packrat middens. Such hoarding was thought to be a type of obsessive-compulsive disorder, OCD. But in the most recent diagnostic manual of psychological disorders, hoarding is proposed to be a unique condition it's now thought to be more about avoiding making decisions about possessions than a general obsession with them. In a recent study, scientists compared the brain activity of hoarders with that of those with OCD, while the subjects were deciding whether to keep or toss their own junk mail and the junk mail of others. Ownership did not affect the brain activity or choices of those with OCD. But the hoarders were different. Their decision-making brain circuit was quiet when contemplating others' mail, but became overactive for decisions about their own mail.