Kleptomania
An impulse control disorder that results in an irresistible urge to steal.
The cause of kleptomania remains unknown but risk factors include a family history of kleptomania or other impulse control disorders. It occurs more often in women.
Kleptomania is a serious disorder that causes an irresistible urge to steal items that aren’t needed and are usually of little value. Consequences can include job loss, financial penalties, and trouble with the law.
No cure exists. But treatment with talk therapy and medication, such as antidepressants, may help end the cycle of compulsive stealing.
Cluster Number:
Wiki Number: W110
Diagnosis: Kleptomania
US Patients:
World Patients:
Sex Ratio:
Age Onset:
Brain Area:
Symptoms: Urge to steal items for other than personal use or financial gain; an impulse control disorder
Progression:
Causes: increased dopamine and serotonin flows may result; maybe like an obsessive-compulsive disorder
Medications: SSRIs, mood stabilizers, opioid receptor antagonists, and antidepressants; naltrexone
Therapies: CBT
Youtube Video: Shoplifiting Addiction/Kleptomaniacs
and Shoplifters Anonymous
Amazon or Library Book: Why Usually Honest People Steal
Click the book to link or buy from Amazon.
4 CURRENT ARTICLES
FROM PUBMED
The world-wide medical research
reports chosen for each diagnosis
Clicking each title opens the
PubMed article’s summary-abstract.
- Use and impact of government-mandated activity statements for online gambling in Australiaby Sally M Gainsbury on March 29, 2025
CONCLUSIONS: A notable proportion of online wagering customers are using activity statements and many feel these are useful in tracking their gambling spending and may help them to reduce their gambling. Importantly, there was minimal evidence of negative unintended consequences observed in self-report and objective behavioural data. Efforts to enhance engagement with activity statements would likely result in further benefits. These findings contribute to the evaluation of a national policy...
- Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of 1,234 individuals diagnosed with trichotillomania in the Swedish National Patient Registerby Luis C Farhat on March 27, 2025
Trichotillomania is an understudied, underrecognized, and difficult-to-treat psychiatric disorder that affects about 1-2% of the population, predominantly women. This study aimed to characterize the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of a Swedish cohort of individuals with a diagnosis of trichotillomania assigned in specialist services across the country. Through the Swedish National Patient Register, we identified all individuals with an ICD-10 diagnosis of trichotillomania between...
- Gambling disorder and problematic pornography use: Does co-occurrence influence treatment outcome?by Gemma Mestre-Bach on March 21, 2025
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Gambling disorder (GD) is a behavioral addiction often co-occurring with various mental health concerns, such as problematic pornography use (PPU). The specific impact of the co-occurrence of GD and PPU on treatment outcome remains underexplored. This study aimed to compare the treatment outcomes of individuals actively receiving treatment for GD (n = 172; 3.49% females), distinguishing between those without PPU (n = 146) and those with co-occurring GD and PPU (n = 26).
- Test-retest reliability of decisions under risk with outcome evaluation: evidence from behavioral and event-related potentials (ERPs) measures in 2 monetary gambling tasksby Jia Jin on March 18, 2025
The balance between potential gains and losses under risk, the stability of risk propensity, the associated reward processing, and the prediction of subsequent risk behaviors over time have become increasingly important topics in recent years. In this study, we asked participants to carry out 2 risk tasks with outcome evaluation-the monetary gambling task and mixed lottery task twice, with simultaneous recording of behavioral and electroencephalography data. Regarding risk behavior, we observed...