[Pathological buying -- a literature review].

This review summarizes the literature on pathological buying published during the past 15 years. Pathological or compulsive buying is defined as frequent preoccupation with buying or impulses to buy that are experienced as irresistible, intrusive, and/or senseless. The buying behavior causes marked distress, interferes with social functioning, and often results in financial problems. Studies on the phenomenology, diagnosis, classification, comorbidity, epidemiology, and treatment are presented. Pathological buying should be diagnosed as impulse control disorder not otherwise specified (ICD-10 F63.9). Psychiatric comorbidity is frequent, particulary mood, anxiety, substance use, eating, impulse control and obsessive-compulsive disorders. The positive results of pharmacological treatment with antidepressants (usually SSRI) and opioid antagonists could not be confirmed in controlled trials. A disorder specific cognitive-behavioral group treatment manual was published in USA. A controlled study is currently conducted in USA and since 2003 at the Department of Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy at the University Hospital Erlangen.