Conditions: Hoarding Disorder
Keywords: Hoarding
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 4
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
Available data suggest that compulsive hoarders have cognitive deficits, particularly with sustaining attention that might contribute their hoarding symptoms.

Detailed description:
Compulsive hoarders perform significantly worse than healthy controls on standard attention tasks. These data suggest that the inability to sustain focus may interfere with hoarders' ability to organize, categorize and make decisions about discarding possessions. Stimulants are first-line treatments for ADHD, improve CPT performance in people with ADHD and enhance school performance in children with ADHD. Extended release formulations, such as methylphenidate ER, are associated with better medication compliance. Together, these data suggest that adjunctive methylphenidate ER might be a novel way to improve attention in compulsive hoarders which might improve hoarding symptoms.

The investigators hypothesis is that adjunctive methylphenidate ER will improve attention in compulsive hoarders aged 18-55. The investigators will also explore the safety of methylphenidate ER administration in compulsive hoarders.

Arms:
arm 1: Subjects will start at 18mg/day; the dose will be increased in increments of 18mg per week to reach 72mg/day.

Interventions: intervention 1: Methylphenidate ER
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Subjects will start at 18mg/day; the dose will be increased in increments of 18mg per week to reach 72mg/day.

Protocol document: