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Compulsive Buying Disorder

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Textbook of Addiction Treatment: International Perspectives

Abstract

The increasing availability of credit has made buying a frequent behavior in everyone’s life. Compulsive buying disorder (CBD) is characterized by loss of control over buying, accruing debts , and psychosocial distress . Reported by the founding fathers of modern psychiatry, Kraepelin and Bleuler described it as a monomania and named it oniomania . CBD may have a profound impact upon both individuals and society ; however, it remains absent from current diagnostic classifications . There are still doubts regarding the psychopathology and nature of CBD; some regard it as a behavioral addiction or a member of two different groups, either the bipolar spectrum or the obsessive-compulsive spectrum of disorders . Conservative estimates describe a prevalence around 2 % in the general population with an extra 6 % at risk for CBD. An association with female gender is usually described, but it has been recently challenged. The CBD construct is based upon three concepts: emotional activation , urges , and affect regulation . Current and lifetime psychiatric comorbidities are usual among treatment-seeking compulsive buyer, respectively, 50 % and 90 %; the most common are mood , anxiety , and impulse control disorders . Accounts of subtypes of CBD patients describe a thrill- and pleasure-seeking impulsive type and an emotionally stricken compulsive type . SSRIs in general and citalopram in particular have been used to treat CBD, but so far, its efficacy remains undetermined. The modulation of dopamine pathways within the brain reward system has been speculated as a promising pharmacological approach. So far, the best evidence-based treatment approaches come from cognitive-behavioral models .

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Impulse Control Disorders Outpatient Unit, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Tatiana Zambrano Filomensky

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil

    Hermano Tavares

Authors
  1. Tatiana Zambrano Filomensky
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  2. Hermano Tavares
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Correspondence to Tatiana Zambrano Filomensky .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Alberta Gambling Research Institute University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

    Nady el-Guebaly

  2. Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL Division of Psychiatry, University College London, London, United Kingdom

    Giuseppe Carrà

  3. Division of Alcoholism & Drug Abuse, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA

    Marc Galanter

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Filomensky, T.Z., Tavares, H. (2015). Compulsive Buying Disorder. In: el-Guebaly, N., Carrà, G., Galanter, M. (eds) Textbook of Addiction Treatment: International Perspectives. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-5322-9_77

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-5322-9_77

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