He was found lying nude on top of garbage with a rug over him. His home was covered in several feet of rubbish, rotting food, and debris and smelled intensely of rotting mould, urine, and faeces. Police officers attended the man’s home following the alarm being raised by his stepfather that he had not been seen or heard from in 3 weeks. This report presents a case of a 51-year-old male admitted to the hospital psychiatric ward following the police removing him from his home. “Severe domestic squalor” or Diogenes syndrome is characterised by extreme self-neglect of environment, health, and hygiene, excessive hoarding, squalor, social withdrawal, and a distinct lack of concern or shame regarding one’s living condition. Due to the limited number of manuscripts on this topic, more research is needed to develop effective intervention strategies, which should include not only psychiatric and neurologic care, but also veterinary care and familiarity with public health policies. We discuss psychopathological mechanisms, such as ageism and attachment disorders. Neurological and psychiatric conditions, such as dementia, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), psychoses, and drug addiction were some of the most common underlying causes. The main findings show that persons hoarding animals in squalor tend to be of advanced age and socially isolated, lacking perception of the consequences of their behavior on themselves, their families, and their animals. From the 52 scientific articles identified in our search, we included and analyzed 23 manuscripts.
The main objective of this preliminary review was to identify studies that investigated extreme forms of animal hoarding in an effort to define the concept of Noah syndrome, recently proposed as the animal variant of Diogenes syndrome. Although DS is not included in DSM 5 or ICD-11 as a stand-alone entity, we consider that the use of an eponym related to the ancient and well known philosopher can be very useful in teaching medical terminology, but also it could contribute to medicine students’ cultural background. We conclude that the name of the syndrome correlates well with Diogenes’ life and philosophy as the name of the syndrome is a reference to the self-isolation and rejection of the outside world practiced by the cynical philosopher. To find if this syndrome should be maintain or not in the geriatric and psychiatric practices. We reviewed selected key issues about the authors who introduced this entity into psychiatric practice, but alsoĪbout its definition, risk factors, clinical manifestation, management aspects, as well as the similarities between Diogenes’ life and philosophy and clinical manifestation of DS. In this article we will focus on a much disputed eponym: “Diogenes syndrome” (DS). The initial treatment should be a behavioral program, but there is not sufficient information regarding pharmacological treatment of the syndrome. Researchers have underlined the frequent presence of DS (36%) in frontotemporal dementia (FTD): different neuropsychological modifications in FTD may contribute to symptoms of DS. " It has long been understood that individuals with dementia often become shut-ins, living in squalor, in the Eastern Baltimore study, dementia was present in 15% of the elderly cases with moderate and severe social breakdown syndrome twice as many as in the general population of the same age group. To explore the phenomenon of DS in dementia we searched for the terms: "Diogenes syndrome, self-neglect, dementia. This is accompanied by a self-imposed isolation, the refusal of external help, and a tendency to accumulate unusual objects. Symptoms include living in extreme squalor, a neglected physical state, and unhygienic conditions. Diogenes syndrome (DS) is a behavioral disorder of the elderly.
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