Shop until you pop
... a new pill, originally developed to treat gambling addicts but now being touted as a possible cure for spendthrift shopaholicsBy Roger Dobson and Peter Richards
For those who find it impossible to walk through a city centre without purchasing a pair of shoes and two tops, help is at hand - in the form of a pill.
A drug is being tested that promises to wean people off their reliance on retail therapy, in much the same way it has halted other addictions to opiates, nicotine and gambling.
More than a quarter of Britons believe they have a problem with purchasing. For tens of thousands the situation is serious, as they shop to find happiness but discover only debt. Some liken the act of buying to a drug trip while others claim that it's like a sexual act.
But for those who want to give up, nalmefene may do the trick. Developed by the US firm Somaxon, it has already been used to reverse the effects of opioid drugs. It targets the brain's pleasure and rewards circuitry, blocking its ability to process pathological pleasure.
Dr Jon Grant, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Minnesota, believes it will also take away the thrill associated with compulsive shopping and estimates it could be available within 18 months. Trials have already proved successful on pathological gamblers: six out of 10 who took the pill daily benefited.
"Shopping is very similar to gambling addiction," said Dr Grant, who is about to begin testing the drug on 2,000 shopping addicts. "It has the same kind of urging and cravings to engage in the behaviour even though you know it is screwing you up. Many gamblers have problems with compulsive spending."
If he succeeds there will be a huge potential market for the drug on this side of the Atlantic. One in five Britons admits to problems in keeping shopping habits under control. Victoria Beckham, the fashion-obsessed former Spice Girl, is believed to spend more than £100,000 a year on her wardrobe. "When I see something I like, I buy it in every colour and I buy shoes in every colour to match, as well as handbags," she said.
Compulsive buyers are likely to have anxiety disorders and low self-esteem, further studies show, and are also more impulsive than those who can resist the high street. Shopaholics, 90 per cent of whom were women, were likely to buy items related to physical appearance such as clothing, shoes and make-up, according to University of Minnesota studies. Many compulsive buyers said they experienced heightened sensations, colours and textures becoming more intense during a buying binge.
In a poll last month, 86 per cent of British women admitted buying clothes that they would never wear, at a total cost of £7.3bn a year. During her lifetime the average woman will buy 658 such garments, worth £12,281. Mencan typically waste £7,901 in a lifetime in the same way.
Robert Lefever, director of the addiction treatment centre Promis in Kent, has deep concerns about the drug. "All it is doing is taking you away from reality," he said.
BIG SPENDER
Elisa Portelli, 35, left, from Surrey, is a TV presenter for a shopping channel and a shopaholic."I just can't stop spending. I'm buying two or three items a week - clothes, shoes, sunglasses, bags, jewellery or accessories. I find it a real buzz: if I feel a bit fed up or down in the dumps, it gives me a real pick up - it's like a drug. I've got a hell of a lot of clothes, in fact two houses full of clothes. I'm a bugger for buying things in five different colours too: once you get a top you really like, you have to, because you might never see it again.
"At work I get to try on all these nice things, but at the same time I just end up buying loads and loads of stuff. Shopping is my life, but sometimes I look at my credit card bills and it horrifies me.
"If this new pill works for people, then brilliant."
For those who find it impossible to walk through a city centre without purchasing a pair of shoes and two tops, help is at hand - in the form of a pill.
A drug is being tested that promises to wean people off their reliance on retail therapy, in much the same way it has halted other addictions to opiates, nicotine and gambling.
More than a quarter of Britons believe they have a problem with purchasing. For tens of thousands the situation is serious, as they shop to find happiness but discover only debt. Some liken the act of buying to a drug trip while others claim that it's like a sexual act.
But for those who want to give up, nalmefene may do the trick. Developed by the US firm Somaxon, it has already been used to reverse the effects of opioid drugs. It targets the brain's pleasure and rewards circuitry, blocking its ability to process pathological pleasure.
Dr Jon Grant, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Minnesota, believes it will also take away the thrill associated with compulsive shopping and estimates it could be available within 18 months. Trials have already proved successful on pathological gamblers: six out of 10 who took the pill daily benefited.
"Shopping is very similar to gambling addiction," said Dr Grant, who is about to begin testing the drug on 2,000 shopping addicts. "It has the same kind of urging and cravings to engage in the behaviour even though you know it is screwing you up. Many gamblers have problems with compulsive spending."
If he succeeds there will be a huge potential market for the drug on this side of the Atlantic. One in five Britons admits to problems in keeping shopping habits under control. Victoria Beckham, the fashion-obsessed former Spice Girl, is believed to spend more than £100,000 a year on her wardrobe. "When I see something I like, I buy it in every colour and I buy shoes in every colour to match, as well as handbags," she said.
Compulsive buyers are likely to have anxiety disorders and low self-esteem, further studies show, and are also more impulsive than those who can resist the high street. Shopaholics, 90 per cent of whom were women, were likely to buy items related to physical appearance such as clothing, shoes and make-up, according to University of Minnesota studies. Many compulsive buyers said they experienced heightened sensations, colours and textures becoming more intense during a buying binge.
In a poll last month, 86 per cent of British women admitted buying clothes that they would never wear, at a total cost of £7.3bn a year. During her lifetime the average woman will buy 658 such garments, worth £12,281. Mencan typically waste £7,901 in a lifetime in the same way.
Robert Lefever, director of the addiction treatment centre Promis in Kent, has deep concerns about the drug. "All it is doing is taking you away from reality," he said.
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