Kleptomania

Kleptomania

Kleptomania involves a failure to resist impulses to steal items that are not needed or sought for personal use or monetary value. Kleptomania should be distinguished from shoplifting, in which the action is usually well-planned and motivated by need or monetary gain. Some clinicians view kleptomania as part of the obsessive-compulsive spectrum of disorders, reasoning that many individuals experience the impulse to steal as an alien, unwanted intrusion into their mental state. Other evidence suggests that kleptomania may be related to, or a variant of, mood disorders, such as depression. The main diagnostic features are:

The person repeatedly yields to the impulse to steal objects that are needed neither for personal use nor for their monetary worth.

Just before the theft, the patient experiences increasing tension.

At the time of theft, the patient feels gratification, pleasure or relief.

These thefts are committed neither out of anger or revenge nor in response to delusions or hallucinations.

The thefts are not better explained by Antisocial Personality Disorder, Conduct Disorder or a Manic Episode.

Associated Features:

Depressed or Guilty (concerning the thefts)

Major Depressive Disorder

Anxiety.

Differential Diagnosis:

Some disorders have similar or even the same symptoms. The clinician, therefore, in his/her diagnostic attempt, has to differentiate against the following disorders which need to be ruled out to establish a precise diagnosis.