Research ​

• Market research
  • Ebay is a popular marketplace app that already exists
  • Tody is a gamified app for cleaning (sweeping, changing sheets, etc) but similar idea
  • Spotless is an app that allows you to add tasks for each room in your house
  • Duolingo is a gamified language app that is very popular, gamification is promising
• International OCD Foundation
  • HD affects 2-6% of population
  • ~3x more common in older adults (55+) than younger
  • 75% have another mental health condition
• APA
  • Cognitive Behavorial Therapy is an effective treatment
    • Still not 100% effective, many people with HD still suffer after treatment
• ADAA
  • Symptoms first appear before 19
  • 80-90% of people with HD also suffer from excessive acquisition
• Carole's Paper
  • Carole Calderon co-wrote this
  • Compares HD responses to discarding possessions to control group
  • Finds that people with HD have trouble with procrastinating decision
    • ‘Will fix it later'
  • SCI
    • ‘a self-report questionnaire that was based on anecdotal clinician observation of people with hoarding and early theoretical and empirical work on this problem'
    • Could be used in app?
• Mayo Clinic
  • People don't usually seek treatment for hoarding disorder
  • "Treatment of hoarding disorder can be challenging but effective if you keep working on learning new skills. Some people don't recognize the negative impact of hoarding on their lives or don't believe they need treatment. This is especially true if the possessions or animals offer comfort. If these possessions or animals are taken away, people will often react with frustration and anger. They may quickly collect more to help satisfy emotional needs."
  • "The main treatment for hoarding disorder is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a skills-based approach to therapy."
  • As part of CBT:
    • Learn to organize and group things to help you decide which ones to get rid of, including which items can be donated.
    • Learn to identify and challenge thoughts and beliefs related to getting and saving items.
    • Learn to reduce isolation and increase opportunities to join in meaningful social activities and support.
• Cleveland Clinic
  • "Healthcare providers were encountering people with hoarding behaviors who didn't have any other mental health conditions. After more research, hoarding disorder was included as an isolated condition, in the OCD spectrum, in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), which is the most recent edition."
  • Collecting vs Hoarding
    • "Collecting normally involves saving certain types of items, such as comic books, currency or stamps. You'd carefully choose these items and typically organize them in a certain way."
    • "Hoarding doesn't involve organization of the items in a way that makes them easy to access or use. People with hoarding disorder often hoard items that have little or no monetary value, such as pieces of paper or broken toys."
  • "Hoarding disorder often begins during adolescence and gradually worsens with age, causing significant issues by the mid-30s."
  • "Researchers don't yet know the exact cause of hoarding disorder."
    • "Identified several information (mental) processing deficits associated with hoarding, including issues with Planning, Organization, Working Memory, etc."