Pathological collecting: A case report

Compulsive buying and compulsive hoarding have been associated with pathological collecting. Although compulsive buyers are trapped into the buying process itself, compulsive hoarders suffer from the inability to discard the purchased items. We report a case of pathological collecting in a 53-year-old male also suffering from alcohol dependence and obsessive-compulsive personality features. His addictive pattern of collecting combined features of compulsive buying disorder with the obsessive accumulation of acquisitions. He chose only high-value, exclusive items. His treatment that included psychopharmacological treatment with sertraline and topiramate and cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy was successful. Pathological collecting can be conceptualized both as a behavioral addiction and as a subtype of hoarding compulsive buying disorder with preference for the acquisition and the inability to discard high-value items. © 2012 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin Boston.