In addition they do not maintain the cleaning of what they accumulate, making that the house does not meet the minimum conditions of habitability. They accumulate all kinds of objects, in many cases even rubbish and garbage. It is one of the most striking features and with which the person suffering from this disorder can be more easily identified. They do not have established schedules and when they eat, it is usually anything they have on hand. In addition to their neglected appearance due to lack of hygiene, weight loss and physical deterioration usually appear because they do not maintain correct eating patterns. In the more advanced stages they only maintain contact with the strictly necessary people, with whom they interact to acquire food or some other necessary product to survive. Gradually they lose contact with all their surroundings, even with close relatives. It is important to note that before suffering the disorder they are neat and careful with their appearance. These patients come to completely neglect their physical appearance when they are in the more advanced stages. The most characteristic symptoms of this pattern of behavior are: Progressive deterioration of social norms and customs It is very frequent that the cases of this type of disorder are detected precisely because of the complaints that the neighbors present. This is due to the smell of accumulated garbage, which promotes the appearance of insect pests or rats attracted by the waste and the risk of a fire in the house. One of the characteristics of this disorder is that it often leads to serious problems of coexistence with neighbors.

Some studies indicate that, at the national level, approximately 6% of the population could be affected by this clinical picture, although there is no conclusive research regarding this data. However, 61% have a serious mental disorder, the most frequent being those with psychotic pathology (24%), alcohol abuse (19%) and personality disorders (16%). On the contrary, 15% have a moderate to severe deterioration. On the other hand, 85% of the people with Diogenes Syndrome treated in this service do not have Cognitive impairment Or suffer a slight deterioration. It is striking about these data that none of the people treated with Diogenes Syndrome were married at that time, although some would have been in the past. Regarding marital status, 54% are single, 27% are widowers and 19% are separated or divorced. In addition, these patients did not have children in their majority (77%) and 92% lived alone. Some of the data published in the year 2014 indicate that 21% of the total number of people who attended this service had accumulation of objects in their homes, with women being the most affected, with 65.4% averaging an average of Age of 80 years. In Spain there is the so-called Service of Psychological Support to Fragile Elderly People with Social Isolation, in which they deal with and deal with cases of this type, among others.

The profile of people with Diogenes syndrome Regardless of the real value of these objects, for these people are very important but the rest do not seem to us. 'Diogenes Syndrome occurs in people who have a great difficulty to get rid of or separate from their property and possessions. The main idea of his philosophical current was to reach the happiness Getting rid of everything superfluous.Īccording to the psychologist Ana Belén Santos-Olmo, specialist in the treatment of this picture:

But the term was coined in the year 1975 with reference to Diogenes of Sinope, A philosopher of ancient Greece.ĭiogenes lived austerely, without any comfort and in a very small space that he shared with a pack of dogs. Studies of this pattern of behavior were carried out and recorded for the first time in the 1960s. He Diogenes syndrome Is a behavioral disorder that is characterized mainly by the accumulation of objects, waste and garbage in the home.

Diogenes syndrome symptoms