Compulsive buying: descriptive characteristics and psychiatric comorbidity.
BACKGROUND
Compulsive buying is infrequently described in the psychiatric literature despite suggestions that it may be prevalent. The authors investigated the demographics and phenomenology of this syndrome and assessed psychiatric comorbidity via interviews of both compulsive buyers and normal buyers.


METHODS
Twenty-four compulsive buyers were compared with 24 age- and sex-matched normal buyers using (1) a semistructured interview for compulsive buying and impulse control disorders, (2) a modified version of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R, and (3) scales measuring compulsiveness, depression, and anxiety.


RESULTS
The typical compulsive buyer was a 36-year-old female who had developed compulsive buying at age 17 1/2 and whose buying had resulted in adverse psychosocial consequences. Purchases were usually of clothes, shoes, jewelry, or makeup, which frequently went unused. Compared with normal buyers, compulsive buyers had a higher lifetime prevalence of anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, and eating disorders and were more depressed, anxious, and compulsive. Among compulsive buyers, 16 (66.7%) described buying that resembled obsessive compulsive disorder, whereas 23 (95.8%) described buying that resembled an impulse control disorder.


CONCLUSIONS
Compulsive buying is a definable clinical syndrome that can result in significant psychosocial impairment and which displays features of both obsessive compulsive disorder and the impulse control disorders.
Christenson
G A
GA
Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 55455.
Faber
R J
RJ
de Zwaan
M
M
Raymond
N C
NC
Specker
S M
SM
Ekern
M D
MD
Mackenzie
T B
TB
Crosby
R D
RD
Crow
S J
SJ
Eckert
E D
ED
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D017668:Age of Onset; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D015897:Comorbidity; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D007174:Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales