Kleptomania: comorbid psychiatric diagnosis in patients and their families.
OBJECTIVE
Kleptomania, defined by DSM-IV as the inability to resist the impulse to steal objects which are not needed for personal use or for their monetary value, may reflect a form of obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder and/or affective spectrum disorder.


METHODS
Twenty-one kleptomanic patients and 57 first-degree relatives completed a semistructured DSM-IV-based interview and questionnaires. Questionnaires are: the HDRS-17 (the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression), the HARS (Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety), the Y-BOCS (Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale), the YMRS (Young Mania Rating Scale). The two groups were compared to demographically matched normal controls (n = 64).


RESULTS
We found a high prevalence of affective and anxiety disorders in our sample of kleptomanic patients and their first-degree relatives. In addition, the scores on the HDRS, HARS, and Y-BOCS were significantly higher in the study group than in the control group.


CONCLUSIONS
Our finding of a high prevalence of psychiatric comorbidity in kleptomanic patients could lead to the development of new treatment strategies for this disorder. Furthermore, the pattern of psychiatric disorders seen in the first-degree relatives can lead to new insights about the nosology and etiopathology of kleptomania.
Dannon
Pinhas N
PN
Rehovot Community Health Care and Rehabilitation Center, affiliated with the Tel-Aviv University, Sackler School of Medicine, Rehovot, Israel.
Lowengrub
Katherine M
KM
Iancu
Iulian
I
Kotler
Moshe
M
D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D003710:Demography; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D007174:Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology*; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales