Objective: In the present study, we aimed to perform a systematic review evaluating the cognitive performance of patients with hoarding disorder (HD) compared with controls. We hypothesized that HD patients would present greater cognitive impairment than controls.
Methods: A systematic search of the literature using the electronic databases MEDLINE, SCOPUS, and LILACS was conducted on May 2020, with no date limit. The search terms were "hoarding disorder," "cognition," "neuropsychology," "cognitive impairment," and "cognitive deficit." We included original studies assessing cognitive functioning in patients with HD.
Results: We retrieved 197 studies initially. Of those, 22 studies were included in the present study. We evaluated 1757 patients who were 41 to 72 years old. All selected studies comprised case-control studies and presented fair quality. Contrary to our hypothesis, HD patients showed impairment only in categorization skills in comparison with controls, particularly at confidence to complete categorization tasks. Regarding attention, episodic memory, working memory, information-processing speed, planning, decision-making, inhibitory control, mental flexibility, language, and visuospatial ability, HD patients did not show impairment when compared with controls. There is a paucity of studies on social cognition in HD patients, although they may show deficits. The impact of emotion in cognition is also understudied in HD patients.
Conclusion: Except for categorization skills, the cognitive performance in HD patients does not seem to be impaired when compared with that in controls. Further work is needed to explore social cognition and the impact of emotion in cognitive performance in HD patients.
Keywords: Cognition; compulsive behavior; neuropsychology; obsessive-compulsive disorder; sustained attention.