{"id":3778,"date":"2009-08-07T09:48:30","date_gmt":"2009-08-07T08:48:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/?p=3778"},"modified":"2009-08-23T15:31:49","modified_gmt":"2009-08-23T14:31:49","slug":"a-drug-for-kleptomania-naltrexone-curbs-shoplifting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/2009\/08\/a-drug-for-kleptomania-naltrexone-curbs-shoplifting\/","title":{"rendered":"A Drug for Kleptomania?   &#8211;  Naltrexone curbs shoplifting."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana;\">It seems like such an unlikely finding: In a University of Minnesota study of kleptomania\u2014the compulsion to steal\u2014a popular medicine used to treat both heroin addiction and alcoholism drastically reduced stealing among a group of 25 shoplifters. The drug, naltrexone, blocks brain receptors for opiates. It is one of the few drugs available for the treatment of alcoholism, and continues to gain momentum as a treatment for opiate addiction.<\/p>\n<p>In an article for the April issue of Biological Psychiatry, Jon Grant and colleagues at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine record the results of their work with 25 kleptomaniacs, most of them women. All of the participants had been arrested for shoplifting at least once, and spent at least one hour per week stealing. The 8-week study is believed to be the first placebo-controlled trial of a drug for the treatment of shoplifting.<\/p>\n<p>In the April 10 issue of Science, Grant said that \u201cTwo-thirds of those on naltrexone had complete remission of their symptoms.\u201d According to Samuel Chamberlain, a psychiatrist at the University of Cambridge in the U.K., the study strongly suggests that \u201cthe brain circuits involved in compulsive stealing overlap with those involved in addictions more broadly.\u201d The study, in short, strengthens the hypothesis that the shoplifting \u201chigh\u201d may have much in common with the high produced by heroin or alcohol.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers are also working with the drug memantine as a treatment for compulsive stealing.<\/p>\n<p>The finding lends additional evidence to the theory that shoplifting is a dopamine- and serotonin-driven disorder under the same medical umbrella as drug addiction and alcoholism. Preliminary research has shown that naltrexone may also have an effect on gambling behavior.<\/p>\n<p>If so-called \u201cbehavioral addictions\u201d continue to display biochemical similarities with \u201cchemical addictions,\u201d the move to broaden the working definition of addiction will continue to intensify. And the same sorts of questions that plague addiction research will be replayed in the behavioral sphere: What level of shoplifting constitutes the disorder called kleptomania? Isn\u2019t the medicalization of shoplifting just a way to excuse bad behavior? Is medical treatment more effective than jail time? From a legal point of view, what is the the difference between kleptomania and burglary?<\/p>\n<p>In his book, America Anonymous, Benoit Denizet-Lewis quotes lead study author Jon Grant: \u201cWith all addictions, a person\u2019s free will is greatly impaired, but the law doesn\u2019t want to entertain that&#8230;. Why shouldn\u2019t someone\u2019s addiction be considered as a mitigating factor, especially in sentencing?\u201d<br \/>\n<em>Source:  April issue of Biological Psychiatry, published in Addiction Inbox (USA) Monday 8th June 2009<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It seems like such an unlikely finding: In a University of Minnesota study of kleptomania\u2014the compulsion to steal\u2014a popular medicine used to treat both heroin addiction and alcoholism drastically reduced stealing among a group of 25 shoplifters. The drug, naltrexone, blocks brain receptors for opiates. It is one of the few drugs available for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-treatment-addiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}