Noah’s Syndrome: Systematic Review of Animal Hoarding Disorder

Abstract

Animal Hoarding Disorder (AHD) is a recently acknowledged psychiatric syndrome regarded as a form of Hoarding Disorder. Despite its great complexity, AHD has been underestimated both within and outside the academic community. This systematic review of the literature will assess some features to give a description of the syndrome. We have selected 26 empirical investigations which have been analyzed for such purpose. Moreover, we have estimated the mean values of some variables such as age (55.6 years old), gender (74.9% women), households (51.8% single-person), unemployment (53.6%), number of animals per case (64.1), presence of dead animals (32.9%) and object hoarding co-morbidity (59.5%). Results will be discussed to highlight AHD particular features, the need for an integrated view around the One Welfare concept and the need for an interdisciplinary approach. Given its complexity, we recommend acknowledging AHD as a separate nosographic entity.