"A compulsive person becomes dependent and uses shopping to alleviate emotional problems," he explains, but the spree which "medicates" these problems provides only momentary relief. It's only a matter of time before the sufferer becomes hooked and their shopping begins to effect not just their bank balances, but their relationships.
But with inappropriate levels of consumer credit an everincreasing problem over here, will we soon be prescribed Cipramil with our debt counselling?
Dr Lefever is doubtful, and advocates a proper course of therapy. He says, "Emotions are never properly cured by drugs. You can't just medicate everything."
But other psychiatrists working in the field testify that Cipramil is noticeably more effective at treating shopping addiction than Prozac, for instance, which is also used to medicate obsessive-compulsive disorders.
Dr Neil Brener, a consultant psychiatrist at the Priory, north London, is a specialist in shoplifting and shopaholics. He has successfully used Cipramil alongside therapy to treat his patients, although he points out that, "since compulsive shopping is a genuine psychiatric problem caused by many different factors, in some cases citalopram will be more helpful to curb it than in others".
He welcomes the Stanford research, which confirms his own clinical experience.
With the conclusion of that research, Lundbeck and US manufacturers of the drug will be free to market their product as the world's first chemical overdraft excluder.
Below, three shopaholics reveal their experiences of Cipramil.
Luke, 21, medical student
LUKE decided to take Cipramil after his shopping habits led to suicidal thoughts. He stayed on it for three months. He says:
"I've always had a slight problem with spending too much, but when I came to university it got worse. I'd buy tons of clothes, CDs and computer equipment and feel a physical thrill when I paid for it. I even bought some vinyls without owning a record player - don't ask me why.
"The strain of work and personal relationships meant that increasingly I would try to cheer myself up by buying things - and, in the end, I couldn't go into a shop without making a purchase. I couldn't escape the craving for the high that shopping gave me, and the debts piled up.
"I started getting so worried about it that I contemplated suicide. That was the wake-up call. I confided in a friend and she said I should see my GP immediately. I was scared what might happen if I didn't.
"He said Cipramil would stop me feeling depressed one minute and compensating for it by shopping the next. The drug doesn't kick in properly for about a fortnight. To start with, I had mild, bearable stomach cramps. When I finally felt the emotional effects, my spending did stop a bit. I felt I didn't need that high when I handed over the credit card.
"I felt so much better on the drug that after a short while I wanted to come off it and get on with my life drugfree. My doctor was happy with my decision, so didn't prescribe any more. I had no problem coming off it, and I didn't start feeling depressed again. But soon my old habits came back - and I suddenly found myself blowing £600 on clothes. Three months on, I'm sorry that I still spend, but I don't have suicidal thoughts about it, and that's the main thing."
Christelle, 26, sports shop manager
Christelle's doctor prescribed her Cipramil in a last-ditch attempt to curb her addictive behaviour. She says:
"For seven years, I was addicted to shopping. I've got an emotional illness which finds relief in addictive behaviour, and shopping was one form of this.
"I became hooked on it when I was 18 when I got my first store card. I discovered it could momentarily relieve anxieties about my life. Eventually, I was running up debts of hundreds a month. I found that paying for luxury items gave me a particular high. I started seeing a psychiatrist who was prescribing me every drug under the sun to try to eliminate the compulsive urges. So when he suggested Cipramil, I thought, why not? I reckon I was on about 15 different pills a day by then, so I guessed it wouldn't make a difference.
"But it had a very strange effect on me. I don't know if this was due to all the other drugs I was on, but it knocked me out, and I could hardly move. So I suppose it did cure me of shopping - I couldn't get out of the house.
"After about six months on the drug, I had had enough and I wanted to purge my system. I didn't think it was doing me any good, and I felt awful. My doctor was still worried about my problems but understood my wish to try a different approach.
"I came off it and went straight back to the spending. Only when I tried a 12-step programme of therapy did I register improvement with everything - a vast improvement, because, two years on, I'm not on any medication at all and I feel normal.
"I still get the impulsive urges to go shopping, but I have learned to control them mentally. I'd never go back to the pills now."
Anya, 32, singer
Anya has been on Cipramil for a year, although she is trying to come off. She says:
"I didn't do anything about my shopping problem for years, because I lived so far away from my GP. I'd just go out and buy things for a buzz - mainly food, alcohol and clothes - and simply could not stop shopping. But at the end of the day, I'd get home and just leave the purchases in the corner of my room, still in the bag.
"I remember trying to explain to friends the moped I'd bought. I didn't have a licence!
"I can't believe I didn't make the effort - I knew perfectly well I had a problem, because I was utterly embarrassed by my behaviour. I moved house and went to a GP who referred me to a psychiatrist. He prescribed me a new drug - Cipramil.
"The side-effects were a problem, although the lure of buying things diminished. I found I could go into shops and come out after a few minutes instead of hours. I experienced nausea for the first 10 days, although it wasn't terrible.
However, I made a mistake when I didn't cut down on my alcohol. One evening I was enjoying my favourite drink - an alcopop - when suddenly I felt very sick, and very drunk. Worse than this, my libido vanished.
"I wanted to try to come off the drug to prove that I could survive without medication and to get my sex-drive back. My doctor reduced the dosage, but it coincided with a bad time in my personal life and I started having panic attacks. This was unusual as I'd felt under control when I was on the drug.
"My doctor explained that I didn't have to come off it at exactly that time, and I decided to stay on it for the time being. I don't like being dependent on it - but it's better than being utterly dependent on the shopping." |
