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Kleptomania – A Stealing Disease

Kleptomania-disease
Kleptomania-disease

Kleptomania is a complex brain disorder where the people with this disorder have an overwhelming urge to steal and get a thrill from doing so.

A person with this disorder feels guilty after stealing. Detection of kleptomania is quite difficult. This disease is common at the teenagers between 13-16 years.

These patients usually rob things which we use in our day to day life like key chains, bags, pens etc.

People are affected with this disorder about 0.6 % of general population especially females.

Causes

The cause of kleptomania is unknown. But there seems to be a strong inclination for kleptomania to coexist with obsessive- coercive disorder, bulimia nervosa, and clinical depression.

Symptoms

  1. Repeated theft of objects which are even not useful for them.
  2. Pleasure or relief on committing the robbery.
  3. Hypertension before the theft.

Treatment

Psychotherapy treatments such as cognitive-behavioral therapy and rational emotive therapy are been used to treat this disorder. Recent studies have indicated that fluoxetine (Prozac) and naltrexone (Revia) may also be helpful.

Prevention

A healthy upbringing, positive intimate relationships, and management of acutely stressful situations may lower the incidence of kleptomania and coexisting disorders.