Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology

Compulsive buying disorder treatment with naltrexone: a case report

Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology 2014; 24: Supplement S133-S134
Read: 2321 Published: 18 February 2021

Compulsive buying disorder (CBD) is characterized by excessive shopping cognitions and buying unneeded or unwanted items, causing serious psychological, financial and familial problems. The etiology of CBD is unknown. It was reported that 5.8% of the US general population suffers from the disorder and that 80% of CBD sufferers are women. There are no established diagnostic criteria for CBD. Psychiatric comorbidity is frequent, particularly mood disorders, anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, impulse control and Obsessive compulsive disorders. Treatment has not been well delineated, but psychodynamic psychotherapy or cognitive-behavioral therapy may be helpful. Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, opioid antagonists, mood stabilizers and atypical antipsychotics may help some patients regulate their buying impulses. Naltrexone is a pure opioid antagonist that blocks the effects of opioids by competitive binding at opioid mu receptors. Kim has reported naltrexone treatment (100 mg/day) for CBD in one individual with comorbid bulimia nervosa. Grant reported treatment of three cases with high-dose naltrexone (100-200 mg/day) for CBD. In this presentation, we are going to present a case with CBD who was treated with naltrexone. A 34-year-old woman was admitted to the outpatient unit for help with her uncontrolled buying behaviors. She had this complaint of buying unnecessary items for the last eight years. She said “I cannot stop shopping, it is like marihuana for me, I cannot get this out of my mind”. After shopping, she was feeling relaxed, but only temporarily. She reported spending 30.000 Turkish liras in a week and that she did not want to go outside anymore because she buys something whenever she goes outside. She said that her husband had cancelled her credit cards and she bought furniture mostly because she could buy them by signing a bill of exchange. She reported depressive mood and anhedonia. However, these symptoms were mostly due to her CBD and its negative consequences. She did not meet full criteria for a major depressive episode. Although she mentioned occasional mood elevations, there was no history of hypomania and her compulsive buying was not associated with a seasonal or episodic pattern. Earlier, she used sertraline 200 mg/day for eight months but she reported no benefits out of sertraline. When she was admitted to our clinic, she was using şuoxetine 80 mg/day. The patient was diagnosed to have compulsive buying disorder. Naltrexone treatment was started at a dose of 50 mg/day. At the follow up interview that took place four weeks after starting naltrexone, the patient reported that the urge to buy was reduced. She said she could go outside on her own twice without giving in to her urge of shopping. However, she did not attend her next follow up interview. Therefore, we did not have long-term outcome data and the patient was considered as lost at follow up. In conclusion, although we only have data for the first month of treatment, our case supports the positive results of other case reports indicating possible efficacy of naltrexone for CBD. Controlled studies of naltrexone in patients with CBD are needed.
 

EISSN 2475-0581