Antidepressant May Help Compulsive Shoppers

W A S H I N G T O N, Dec. 11 -- Just in time for the holidayseason, a corporate-funded study says anantidepressant can help compulsive shoppers.

People with the disorder who took the drug — a member ofthe newest class of antidepressants called selective serotoninreuptake inhibitors — showed marked improvement in theircondition, said Dr. Kim Bullock and colleagues at StanfordUniversity in California.

They tested 21 patients, who took the drug citalopram, madeby Forest Laboratories Inc. under the name Celexa, for threemonths.

A Preoccupation With Purchasing

“Compulsive shopping [or compulsive buying] is a disordercharacterized by a preoccupation with purchasing unneeded itemsthat causes marked distress, social or occupational impairmentand/or financial problems,” the researchers said in astatement.

It affects between 2 percent and 8 percent of the U.S.population, they said. Most people suffering from the disorderare women.

“Citalopram produced marked improvements on both theYale/Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale Shopping Version and theClinical Global Impressions of Improvement scale,” theresearchers wrote.

They said 80 percent of the patients improved.

The drug is sold in 70 countries under several trade namesincluding Celexa, Cipramil and Seropram. Forest Laboratoriesfunded the study.