Digital hoarding: A new subtype of traditional hoarding disorder?

Abstract

Approximately one in 40 adults display hoarding behaviors that are considered pathological (Nordsletten et al., 2013). The central diagnostic criterion is a persistent difficulty getting rid of belongings, independent of their value (5th ed.; DSM–5; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). Individuals with hoarding disorder accumulate objects ranging from magazines and paperwork to clothing and sentimental items to containers and packaging such as gum wrappers. Recent research suggests, however, that hoarding behaviors may expand beyond the realm of physical belongings into the digital world. Although a digital subtype of hoarding has long been discussed in the media and various online spaces, academia has only recently started to pay attention to it. The first scientific article published on digital hoarding is a 2015 case study by van Bennekom and colleagues. The authors describe the case of a male patient who hoarded thousands and thousands of digital pictures, mostly of landscapes very similar to each other, on multiple hard drives. Following this seminal case study, several articles have been published in an attempt to better understand and conceptualize the phenomenon of digital hoarding. Using the DSM‐5 diagnostic criteria for (traditional) hoarding disorder as a framework, this article reviews the phenomenology of digital hoarding and how it compares to traditional hoarding.