Enhancing Treatment of Hoarding Disorder With Personalized In-Home Sorting and Decluttering Practice (BITS)

November 11, 2025 updated by: Carolyn Rodriguez, Stanford University

Building Community-Academic Partnerships for the Evidence-Based Treatment of Hoarding Disorder

The proposed study aims to investigate the efficacy of adding in-home decluttering practice to Buried in Treasures Workshop (BIT) facilitated group treatment for hoarding disorder.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Patients participate in Buried in Treasures Workshop (BIT) that has been shown to improve symptoms of hoarding disorder. The investigators hypothesize that adding in-home decluttering practice to the BIT workshop will decrease hoarding symptoms and level of clutter over time.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

41

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • California
      • Stanford, California, United States, 94305
        • Stanford University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 70 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria for Individuals with Hoarding Disorder:

  1. Age 18 to 70 years
  2. Either gender and all ethno-racial groups
  3. Physically healthy male or non-pregnant female.
  4. Hoarding Disorder primary condition
  5. Willing and able to understand and complete consent and study procedures
  6. English speaking

Exclusion Criteria for Individuals with Hoarding Disorder:

  1. Current or past history of bipolar, psychotic or eating disorders, substance dependence, or substance abuse in the last year.
  2. Clinically at risk of suicide with Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) Suicidal Ideation Subscale of 4 or higher (i.e. suicidal intent without specific plan)
  3. Major medical or neurological conditions that increase the risk of participation or that would prevent completing assigned behavioral practice tasks.
  4. Unable or unwilling to allow study staff into home for home assessment
  5. Currently at high risk for eviction
  6. Animal hoarding or squalor

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Double

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Immediate Treatment
Facilitated group therapy with behavioral practice; 18 weeks
Behavioral: Facilitated group therapy with behavioral practice; 18 weeks
Facilitated group therapy for hoarding disorder with behavioral practice
Experimental: Delayed Treatment
Facilitated group therapy with behavioral practice; 18 weeks (after a 18-20 week delay)
Behavioral: Facilitated group therapy with behavioral practice; 18 weeks
Facilitated group therapy for hoarding disorder with behavioral practice

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Number of Patients Who Met and Exceeded Response Criteria of the Saving Inventory-Revised (SI-R)
Time Frame: Change from baseline (pre-treatment) to week 18 (post-treatment) the Immediate Treatment Arm/Group and change from baseline (pre-treatment at 18 weeks) to 36 weeks (post-treatment) for the Delayed Treatment Arm/Group

The SI-R is a 23-item questionnaire with 3 sub-scales for difficulty discarding, excessive clutter, and compulsive acquisition.

The total score ranges from 0 to 92. The greater the score, the more severe the hoarding symptoms. Total score higher than 41 shows significant difficulty with clutter.

For the acquisition subscale, items 2 (reverse score), 9, 11, 14, 16, 18 and 21 are summed together. The subscale ranges from 0 to 28 and score greater than 13 indicates difficulty with excessive acquisition.

For the difficulty discarding subscale, items 4(reverse score), 6, 7, 13, 17, 19, 23 are summed together. The subscale ranges from 0 to 28 and score greater than 13 indicates difficulty with discarding.

For the clutter subscale, items 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 22 are summed together. The subscale ranges from 0 to 36 and score greater than 15 indicates difficulty with accumulated clutter.

Response was defined as at least a 14 point change (pre-post) in the total score.
Change from baseline (pre-treatment) to week 18 (post-treatment) the Immediate Treatment Arm/Group and change from baseline (pre-treatment at 18 weeks) to 36 weeks (post-treatment) for the Delayed Treatment Arm/Group

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Clutter Image Rating Scale
Time Frame: Change from baseline at 8 weeks and 16 weeks after treatment
Three sets of photographs, each containing nine photos of a single room with varying levels of clutter. A selection is made as to which photograph best resembles their own home.
Change from baseline at 8 weeks and 16 weeks after treatment

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Stanford University

Collaborators

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Carolyn Rodriguez, M.D., Ph.D., Stanford University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

September 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 30, 2019

Study Completion (Actual)

April 2, 2020

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 20, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 20, 2016

First Posted (Estimated)

July 25, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimated)

November 21, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 11, 2025

Last Verified

November 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 36788
  • K23MH092434 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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