Articles in health and medical journals are the key resource for finding information about hoarding disorder.The free PubMed database (including Medline) indexes most of the relevant ones, but not all of them.
This page doesnt cover everything about searching PubMed.There’s a User guide at the bottom of the home page, or under the search box. There are videos:PubMed tutorials, or How to use PubMed.
Search strategies
There are 2300 + results if you search ‘hoarding’. There are ways to reduce that:
Pubmed indexes references. Most of the searches below use the index terms Hoarding Disorder and Hoarding. There are also subheadings, including therapy. So using index terms:
Limits; there is a list down the left side of the page. Always include ‘Human’ and ‘English’. Others include:article type, text availability and publication date.
You can change any limits by ticking/unticking them,then search again.
Display options include summary or abstract (can be slow to load due to size). There is a cog icon on the top right of the screen to change. All results here are summary option, unless labelled abstract.
Detailed information
1. Search ‘hoarding’ should include all relevant articles, but total is over 1300. Add more limits eg
2. Search for articles with words starting ‘hoard’ in title.Search is hoard*[title].’And diagnosis’ is adding words.
3. Use index terms in MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). The most relevant index term is ‘hoarding disorder‘, but it was only created in 2016. It has been added to some older articles. There is also ‘hoarding‘. All the searches below used those as major topics.
Clinical trials are particularly important. The search was broader (more search terms, no date limit). 2 relevant references were not indexed as clinical trials; click here and here. Then search for only randomised controlled trials (rcts).
Add more terms page with some details about how to do that. Examples;
Add a word. Use AND
Add MeSH index terms You need to know what they are. Examples below: Psychology and therapy are [MeSH Subheading]. Depression and family [MeSH Terms].
If you do a search and get too few articles; use more general search terms, remove or broaden limits. Click on the ‘similar articles’ section of results (see below).
Article’s page
Click on the title to get its page, which has full details and abstract, if there is one.
There is then a list of similar articles, then cited by (if it has been). References; only a few references are visible. There is a button to show all. They may include links to PubMed or Pubmed Central (free full text). The MeSH index terms are at the end. An example;
Access full text; click on an icon at the top right
Some articles are free. They have ‘free article’ in orange under the reference. There’s also a limit on the left hand menu. For the hoarding search, limited to last 5 years;
(NB its hard to find the free full text of a research trail (‘A more human approach..’) Direct link)
Most articles are not free.
NHS professionals and university staff and students have access to more databases and journals. Library staff can also advise about searching.
This is a new site. Feedback welcome! contact form.
Fiona McLean, Health information professional/ librarian (retired)
Hoarding disorder references 