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Background and aims: The ICD-11 chapter on mental, behavioral and neurodevelopmental disorders contains new controversial diagnoses including compulsive sexual behavior disorder (CSBD), intermittent explosive disorder (IED) and gaming disorder. Using a vignette-based methodology, this field study examined the ability of mental health professionals (MHPs) to apply the new ICD-11 diagnostic requirements for impulse control disorders, which include CSBD and IED, and disorders due to addictive behaviors, which include gaming disorder, compared to the previous ICD-10 guidelines. Methods: Across eleven comparisons, members of the WHO's Global Clinical Practice Network (N 5 1,090) evaluated standardized case descriptions that were designed to test key differences between the diagnostic guidelines of ICD-11 and ICD-10. Results: The ICD- 11 outperformed the ICD-10 in the accuracy of diagnosing impulse control disorders and behavioral addictions in most comparisons, while the ICD-10 was not superior in any. The superiority of the ICD-11 was particularly clear where new diagnoses had been added to the classification system or major revisions had been made. However, the ICD-11 outperformed the ICD-10 only in a minority of comparisons in which mental health professionals were asked to evaluate cases with non-pathological high involvement in rewarding behaviors. Discussion and Conclusions: Overall, the present study indicates that the ICD-11 diagnostic requirements represent an improvement over the ICD-10 guidelines. However, additional efforts, such as training programs for MHPs and possible refinements of diagnostic guidance, are needed to avoid over-diagnosis of people who are highly engaged in a repetitive and rewarding behavior but below the threshold for a disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract We present the case of a patient, a boy of 16 years of age at initial presentation, with kleptomania, an impulse disorder characterized by an impulse to steal unneeded items, and attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The patient's parents reported that he would frequently impulsively steal items and money that he did not need. Cognitive and physical assessments revealed no abnormalities, and the patient had no history of substance abuse. The patient was diagnosed with kleptomania and ADHD. The patient was started on Osmotic Release Oral System Methylphenidate (OROS‐MPH), a medication commonly used to treat ADHD, and experienced improvement in ADHD symptoms and stealing behavior. At 19 years of age, it was discovered that the patient's behavioral symptoms were uncontrolled during times of the day when the blood concentration of MPH was likely to have waned. After starting an additional dose of guanfacine at night, his symptoms during these times of day improved. While existing research is not definitive, there may be a connection between ADHD and kleptomania. Further, there are some reports that treatment of ADHD with MPH also reduced stealing behavior, aligning with our present findings. We discuss the potential mechanisms behind these improvements and further present the first evidence of the efficacy of guanfacine in the treatment of kleptomania.

Copyright of Tradução em Revista is the property of Faculdades Catolicas - Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We present the case of a patient, a boy of 16 years of age at initial presentation, with kleptomania, an impulse disorder characterized by an impulse to steal unneeded items, and attention‐deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The patient's parents reported that he would frequently impulsively steal items and money that he did not need. Cognitive and physical assessments revealed no abnormalities, and the patient had no history of substance abuse. The patient was diagnosed with kleptomania and ADHD. The patient was started on Osmotic Release Oral System Methylphenidate (OROS‐MPH), a medication commonly used to treat ADHD, and experienced improvement in ADHD symptoms and stealing behavior. At 19 years of age, it was discovered that the patient's behavioral symptoms were uncontrolled during times of the day when the blood concentration of MPH was likely to have waned. After starting an additional dose of guanfacine at night, his symptoms during these times of day improved. While existing research is not definitive, there may be a connection between ADHD and kleptomania. Further, there are some reports that treatment of ADHD with MPH also reduced stealing behavior, aligning with our present findings. We discuss the potential mechanisms behind these improvements and further present the first evidence of the efficacy of guanfacine in the treatment of kleptomania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Kleptomania is characterized by recurrent failure to resist the impulse to steal items of little value despite the ego-dystonic impulse and awareness of the wrongfulness of the act. Its prevalence is considered to be 0.6–0.8% in the general population and it is mostly comorbid with other psychiatric disorders. Kleptomania is a disabling disorder since patients suffer from emotional distress and impaired functioning. Objectives Although there is no cure, treatment may help prevent Kleptomania worsening and its negative consequences. We propose a review of the therapeutic approach to this disease. Methods Non-systematic literature review. Results No effective treatment is available for Kleptomania. Better efficacy can be achieved by combining psychotherapy with pharmacotherapy. Different treatment interventions can be selected based on clinical similarities to other disorders, co-occurring conditions or behavioral core features. Patients with significant mood symptoms may benefit from mood stabilizers or antidepressants. For patients with shoplift cravings and/or family history of substance use disorders, Naltrexone may reduce symptoms. Stimulants may be useful for Kleptomania bassociated with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder impulsivity. Benzodiazepines are effective in tension relief when used as adjuvants, at the beginning of treatment. Electroconvulsive therapy should be reserved for patients with treatment-resistant symptoms and comorbid depression. Cognitive-behavioral therapy has replaced Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic psychotherapies. Conclusions Treatment helps decrease disruption to the person’s life, preventing the intense shame, legal, social, family, and occupational repercussions of Kleptomania. Although pharmaceutical and psychosocial interventions are available, we still lack specific treatments for Kleptomania. Disclosure No significant relationships.

Kleptomania is an addiction to stealing without an economic motive; therefore, an examination of effective interventions as a preventive measure is needed. The effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) combined with mindfulness for the treatment of addiction has been previously indicated, and it is presumed to be effective for kleptomania; however, this relationship remains unstudied. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural group therapy (CBGT) combined with mindfulness for treating kleptomania. The results of a 12-session programme of CBGT combined with mindfulness for 22 patients with kleptomania showed that kleptomania symptoms and quality of life (QOL) improved. Furthermore, the recovery process revealed that the improvement of distress tolerance affected the improvement of kleptomania symptoms and that the improvement of reward perception and distress tolerance affected the improvement of stress response and QOL. These results suggest that CBGT combined with mindfulness may be effective in improving symptoms and QOL in kleptomania. Key learning aims: (1) To understand the clinical features of patients suffering from kleptomania. (2) To learn about CBT interventions for patients with kleptomania. (3) To gain an increased understanding of the mechanisms of recovery in patients with kleptomania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kleptomania (curi patologis) merupakan salah satu bentuk gangguan kejiawaan yang ditandai dengan mencuri berulang. Perilaku tersebut disertai dengan keinginan kuat yang sulit dikendalikan. Kleptomania dapat berhubungan dengan gangguan kejiwaan seperti depresi, kecanduan alcohol, gangguan kecemasan dan gangguan obsesif kompulsif. Kleptomania memiliki kesamaan gejala dengan adiksi seperti adanya tekanan yang kuat sebelum keinginan tersebut dicapai, penurunan keinginan segera sesaat setelah aksi dilakukan, adanya jeda waktu (jam, hari atau minggu) terhadap munculnya keinginan melakukan aksi pencurian berulang, serta terdapat perasaan senang setelah melakukan aksinya Kleptomania juga dapat berkaitan dengan perubahan mood. Kriteria diagnostik untuk kleptomania berdasarkan American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders diantaranya adalah prilaku mencuri barang berulang dimana penderita tidak mampu untuk mengendalikan keinginan tersebut. Barang yang dicuri biasanya tidak diperlukan oleh pasien dan bukan untuk dijual. Terdapat beberapa alat bantu untuk penegakkan diagnosis kleptomania diantaranya adalah Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale Modified for Kleptomania (K-YBOCS) dan Kleptomania Symptom Asessment Scale (K-SAS). K-YBOSC merupakan alat ukur keparahan gejala kleptomania. Untuk terapi farmakologi diantaranya Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) merupakan golongan antidepresan yang bekerja dengan meningkatkan level serotonin di otak dan naltrexon merupakan terapi medikasi terhadap adiksi alcohol selain itu beberapa psikoterapi yang banyak dilakukan untuk penderita kleptomania adalah Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), psikoterapi kognitif, desensitisasi sistemik dan terapi aversi. Psikoterapi ini bertujuan untuk mengubah persepsi penderita terhadap tindakan mencuri dan mengalihkan minat ke hal lain.

Kleptomania is an impulse control disorder characterized by the irresistible urge to steal not for monetary gain. Since its conceptualization, this categorical diagnosis has been conflated with common beliefs regarding the social class and gender such as the idea that women are intrinsically fragile and that people in the middle class were unlikely to commit theft. Also, its use has been controversial in the medical and forensic fields. This presentation will provide a historical excursus through the definitions of the syndrome and summarize the available pharmacological and psychotherapeutic options for its treatment. Currently, there is a lack of systematic studies regarding the clinical characteristics of kleptomania and its treatment options for practical standardized approaches.

Copyright of Forensische Psychiatrie, Psychologie, Kriminologie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Although studies have demonstrated that negative affects are critical attributes of drug addiction, this has remained less clear in behavioral addiction. In this preliminary study with a relatively small number of samples, we investigated negative affects in patients diagnosed with behavioral addiction, particularly paraphilia and kleptomania. Negative affects were examined using self-rating questionnaire and further evaluated by objective assessments in behavioral addicts and normal subjects. Explicit, self-referential negative affects, such as anxiety, stress, and depression, were higher in behavioral addicts than control subjects. Such self-referential negative affects were, although not entirely, consistent with objective evaluations by others and blood stress hormone concentrations. Further investigation of personality traits in behavioral addicts unveiled that heightened negative affects were associated with stronger neurotic personality in behavioral addicts than normal subjects. These results suggest that behavioral addiction, such as paraphilia and kleptomania, may be characterized by heightened negative affects attributable to stronger neurotic personality.

Kleptomania merupakan sebuah gangguan yang dikarakteristikkan dengan adanya dorongan untuk melakukan tindakan mencuri benda-benda tidak dibutuhkan dan tidak menguntungkan. Dorongan tersebut muncul tak tertahankan dan terjadi berulang kali. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menggali bagaimana individu yang pernah menampilkan gejala kleptomania memaknai pengalaman terkait perilaku kleptomanianya. Untuk memahami fenomena tersebut dengan lebih mendalam, penelitian ini dilakukan dalam dua tahap, yaitu studi autoetnografi terhadap diri peneliti sendiri dan studi fenomenologi terhadap dua orang partisipan. Hasil kedua studi menunjukkan bahwa seluruh partisipan memunculkan perilaku kleptomania sejak usia anak-anak dan menunjukkan latar belakang keluarga yang tidak harmonis. Terdapat enam tema yang dimaknai secara berbeda antar partisipan, yaitu: kekecewaan kepada orang tua, perasaan putus asa, dorongan yang kuat, perasaan malu, perasaan tidak pernah puas, dan keinginan untuk memperbaiki diri. Enam tema tersebut kemudian disimpulkan menjadi tiga tema besar, yaitu: latar belakang keluarga, dinamika internal partisipan, dan keputusan untuk memperbaiki diri.

Although studies have demonstrated that negative affects are critical attributes of drug addiction, this has remained less clear in behavioral addiction. In this preliminary study with a relatively small number of samples, we investigated negative affects in patients diagnosed with behavioral addiction, particularly paraphilia and kleptomania. Negative affects were examined using self-rating questionnaire and further evaluated by objective assessments in behavioral addicts and normal subjects. Explicit, self-referential negative affects, such as anxiety, stress, and depression, were higher in behavioral addicts than control subjects. Such self-referential negative affects were, although not entirely, consistent with objective evaluations by others and blood stress hormone concentrations. Further investigation of personality traits in behavioral addicts unveiled that heightened negative affects were associated with stronger neurotic personality in behavioral addicts than normal subjects. These results suggest that behavioral addiction, such as paraphilia and kleptomania, may be characterized by heightened negative affects attributable to stronger neurotic personality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kleptomania is an impulse control disorder characterized by the irresistible urge to steal not for monetary gain. Since its conceptualization, this categorical diagnosis has been conflated with common beliefs regarding the social class and gender such as the idea that women are intrinsically fragile and that people in the middle class were unlikely to commit theft. Also, its use has been controversial in the medical and forensic fields. This review of the literature will provide a historical excursus through the definitions of the syndrome and summarize the available pharmacological and psychotherapeutic options for its treatment. Currently, there is a lack of systematic studies regarding the clinical characteristics of kleptomania and its treatment options for practical standardized approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kleptomania is an impulse control disorder. It refers to an irresistible compulsion to steal, motivated by neurotic impulse rather than material need. For Kleptomaniacs, stealing is not about money; it is about feeling and the rush of lairing on the edge. People with kleptomania has long been ignored by the frontline workers and even the policy makers as the actual number of these people is not realistic and reflective. Very often, kleptomania run away with the treatment at an earlier date as fearing that the treatment providers would notify the police. More often, the judiciary does not have sufficient measures to deal with their case as the notion of kleptomania is not an easy case to define and follow. Thus, most of these people may have to face the painful consequences, like probation and even Imprisonment. Nevertheless, the possible way-out for these clients is rehabilitation instead of imprisonment. Kleptomania often does not involve in one single offence, but whether the subjects are willing to disclose the related statistics is a question. This paper would like to take kleptomania as a case study to review the forcing factors which have influenced the statistics are far higher than the official data with reasons. The present study will try to explain the reasons and recommend effective methods to motivate a possible way-out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kleptomania as a type of impulse control disorder (ICD) characterized by an inability to resist urges to steal objects not valuable or needed for personal use. Kleptomania may co-occurs with many psychiatric disorders frequently other impulse control disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorders, affective disorders, eating disorders and substance use disorders. We presented two adolescent cases admitted to Marmara University Child and Adolescent Psychiatry outpatient clinic because of stealing behavior and diagnosed with Kleptomania and ADHD. Both cases had improvement in stealing behavior after ADHD treatment. Careful monitoring of comorbid conditions in the psychiatric evaluation of Kleptomania cases is very important in terms of treatment and prognosis.

Background: Kleptomania is a disease that shares features with obsessive compulsive spectrum disorders (OCD) and with substance abuse disorders (SAD). This is underlined by therapeutic approaches in kleptomania ranging from cognitive behavioural therapy and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors that are effective in OCD, and opioid antagonists that are currently being used in SAD. However, almost no literature exists about exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy in kleptomania. Furthermore, there is a clear lack of objective markers that would allow a therapeutic monitoring. Aim: To show the effectiveness of ERP therapy in kleptomania in a single case report. Method: An ERP therapy under real-world conditions and later augmentation with the opioid antagonist naltrexone is described. Continuous measurements of galvanic skin response (GSR) before, during and after therapy sessions are reported in association with changes of the Kleptomania Symptom Assessment Scale (KSAS) self-questionnaire. Results: While KSAS scores showed a clear treatment response to ERP sessions, the GSR was significantly lower during ERP treatment in comparison with baseline measures. However, during augmentation with naltrexone, GSR measures increased again and clinical severity did not further improve. Conclusions: This case shows the possible usefulness of ERP-like approaches and therapy monitoring using electrophysiological markers of arousal for individualized treatment in kleptomania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of the study was 1) to report the case of a 15-year-old boy who developed kleptomania symptoms during methylphenidate treatment and 2) to review the available therapeutic options for kleptomania based on a literature search of Medline and Google Scholar databases (2000–2018). Case report: For the past seven years a 15-year-old boy had participated in counselling at a psychological counselling centre because of school problems and upbringing difficulties, and had a five-year history of psychiatric treatment for ADHD. He was admitted to the Department of Psychiatry because of recurrent stealing episodes that occurred during methylphenidate treatment. During the hospitalization, the patient did not observe the therapeutic contract – he stole items from other patients. Pharmacotheraputic and psychotherapeutic treatment resulted in a partial improvement in impulsive behaviour. At discharge, he spoke critically of his previous conduct and expressed readiness to continue treatment in an outpatient setting. Conclusions: Kleptomania has a very negative impact on a patient's overall well-being. In the reported case, kleptomania developed during methylphenidate treatment. Kleptomania should always be taken into account as a possible cause of stealing during a psychiatric examination, to avoid stigmatization of patients as criminals. Pharmacotherapy and cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy focused on the development of strategies, which can help the patient to control the urge to steal, are important components of kleptomania treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bizarre upsurge of yahoo-yahoo in this 21st century in Nigeria is alarming and calls for academic attention, as such more than 40% undergraduates and up to 60% graduates without dependable job ware recruited into kleptomania and fraudster industry. The most abnormal phase of it is the initiation of secondary school students of between 15-22 years into this criminal guile. This study discovered that, both male and female, preschooler and graduate, adolescent and aged, educated and even uneducated people have inducted to the game as far as they can browse internet through phone or Laptop. The objectives of this study are to make Islāmic point of view with Qur'ānic justification towards fraud and theft that predominant in Nigeria as known to the people especially the mislead youth and also to encourage federal government to take quick step in finding solution to the problem of unemployment in Nigeria. In order to achieve this aim, thematic and analytical method employed. This paper finds that 419 and larceny of the olden days has reshuffled their name as yahoo-yahoo in the form of a game for educated elite played through the aid of internet accessibility. The paper concluded on the fact that two major reasons bring about the issue of yahoo-yahoo includes; the irate belief that colonial master had brutally enslaved their great grandfather in return they wanted to collect their entitlement, while others have erroneous confidence that they wanted to retrieve the money which European people borrow from their great grandfather. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the clinical practice of child and adolescent psychiatry, cases in which the patient cannot or will not come to the clinic （refusal to leave home, paren（t s） unwilling to subject the child to sessions, etc.） leaving just the paren（t s） available to participate in therapy are not rare. I have met many such parents who were rejected by other medical institutions because they could only treat patients in attendance. While I understand the reasoning behind rejecting such patients who cannot come in for treatment, it has been my aim to assist in these situations as best I can. To that end, I studied the effectiveness of using the systems approach, considered a possible method to treat a patient without his/her attendance, as was the situation in the case described herein. The patient in question and his parents came to our clinic for assistance with what was described as four years of kleptomania. The family subsequently decided the patient would not attend sessions regularly, resulting in the patient coming in only twice. The first occasion was the initial and only visit with me, and the second was for a psychological examination with another therapist. Given the limitation of the patient being absent, psychotherapy centered around the patientʼs mother using the systems approach. As a result, the parents reported dissipation in the patientʼs symptoms as well as some improvement in their relationship with the boy. The possibilities of extending treatment to a patient in their absence—with only the parents present in sessions as in this case— may suggest efficacy of psychotherapy using the systems approach as a treatment option worth considering in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the Islamic penal law the application of a criminal sanction to a perpetrator requires the presence of some certain features in the perpetrator himself/herself. Sanity and comprehension are the most important ones of these features which have been elaborated under the title of "ahliyyah" in classical fiqh literature. There is no dispute between muslim jurists over mitigating or quashing a fixed sanction due to an illness blocking sanity and comprehension. Some well-known illnesses affecting criminal accountability are mentioned in the classical fiqh literature, but their number is very limited so to enlight contemporary questions. Kleptomania is a modern disorder, specified by urging a person to steal by blocking his/her self control, and it is currently recognised as a way of defence in secular law. Here the question is: How would be "pathological stealing" evaluated by the Islamic law which punishes stealing with a major sentence like "hadd" or with "ta'zir" in case of doubt or ambiguity? First of all, in order to answer this question, it is inevitable to know the nature of kleptomania and define it... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To conceive the notion of corruption presupposes the existence of corrupt individuals, groups or organisations. The existence of corrupt individuals, groups or organisations you might say presupposes the presence of an entity. Every entity (i.e. state or corporate) has laid down procedures, processes and methods of doings and functioning. When these procedures and processes are negated, one could be accused of subversion. Subversion is an element in the definition of administrative corruption and is the unwillingness to follow stipulated plans of actions. An action that negates procedures falls under corrupt practice. This article will answer the following research questions: How has corruption been framed and perceived and what are the underlining consequences in Africa? In what ways, if any, has the prevailing perception of corruption undermined and understated the notion of corruption in Africa? In what ways can a remedial be conceived in the fight to make Africa free of corruption? And finally: How can Kleptoafronia be conceived as a panacea for corruption in the continent? This article uses themes and narrative analysis in the qualitative realm to provide answers to the research questions. Over 500 scholarly materials were read and scanned from journal articles, Internet sources, textbooks and several academic indexes to provide evidence for the arguments in this article from five disciplinary standpoints: political science, public administration, criminology, psychology and medical sciences. This article is a conceptual article that tends to demonstrate that corruption in Africa is a psych-administrative disorder termed – Kleptoafronia.

Abstract Kleptomania is the inability to refrain from the urge to steal items and is done for reasons other than personal use or financial gain. Alternatively, some of the main characteristics of the disorder, which consist of recurring intrusion feelings, an inability to resist the urge to steal, and a release of pressure following the theft, suggest that kleptomania could be an obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder. Persons diagnosed with kleptomania usually gain satisfaction after his stolen activity was done. This study is a qualitative-phenomenological study. Two men involved in the study; both subjects had been encountered an impulse disorder for years. The results showed that both subjects made plans before they stole things. They had an ego defense mechanism against kleptomania impulse that emerged when there are external and internal factors that weaken their wishes. Subject who has a good ego defense mechanism, have a strong will to recover; however, subject who has a weak ego defense mechanism will have a weak will to recover.

A 57‐year‐old woman who had been arrested for shoplifting visited our hospital. She was diagnosed with kleptomania. She had previously been diagnosed with CREST (calcinosis, Raynaud's phenomenon, esophageal dysmotility, sclerodactyly, and telangiectasia) syndrome and obsessive–compulsive disorder. Cranial magnetic resonance imaging showed mild atrophy of the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, left hippocampus, and occipital cortex, as well as diffuse mild T2 hyperintensity in the deep and subcortical white matter, including the frontal region. During a single‐photon emission computed tomography scan, significant hyperperfusion was observed in the right ventral striatum, including the nucleus accumbens, ventral thalamus, and right ventrolateral prefrontal areas. Patchy hypoperfusion was found in the bilateral posterior cingulate, parietal, and occipital regions. The patient's neurocognitive function was normal, except for slight impairment of her executive function. Her symptoms and neuroimaging findings were not suggestive of a specific neurocognitive disorder. Hyperactivity of the right ventral striatum may contribute to both obsessive–compulsive disorder and kleptomania. Although frontotemporal lobar degeneration is a major neurocognitive disorder related to illegal behaviours, CREST syndrome‐induced white matter microstructural damage in the orbitofrontal lobe could have caused our patient's kleptomania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important parts of any system is authentication. Appreciated as the first and the last line of defense in the great majority of cases, authentication systems can usually prevent the kleptomaniac from unauthorized accessing to users’ data. However, the traditional text-based password is still used in many websites and applications which are vulnerable to different kinds of attacks. Accordingly, there exist some other alternative ways to boost this traditional method. In this study, we classified and identified different types of authentication systems in a variety of platforms. Their usage, similarity, usability, performance and drawbacks were discussed. The goal of this study is to provide useful, classified information with the aim of understanding of how different authentication systems work and of what their usability and drawbacks are to the readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Kleptomania (compulsive stealing) remains poorly understood, with limited data regarding its underlying pathophysiology and appropriate treatment choices. METHODS: Participants (N = 112) age 18 to 65 with a primary, current diagnosis of kleptomania were assessed for the severity of their stealing behavior and urges to steal, as well as related mental health symptoms. To identify clinical and demographic measures associated with variation in disease severity, we utilized the statistical technique of partial least squares. RESULTS: Greater kleptomania symptom severity was associated with having more frequent urges to steal, feeling excited by stealing, having a current eating disorder, and having a current diagnosis of obsessivecompulsive disorder (OCD). Worse symptom severity was associated with a shorter transition time (between first stealing and diagnosis of kleptomania), as well as with a higher chance of stealing from relatives and seeking treatment at some point. CONCLUSIONS: Feeling a sense of reward from stealing and co-occurrence of certain disorders associated with compulsivity (eg, OCD, anorexia nervosa) were strongly associated with worse illness severity in kleptomania. Treatment approaches should incorporate these disorders as possible treatment targets. These data also may support conceptualizing kleptomania as an obsessive-compulsive-related disorder rather than being allied to substance use or impulsive disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I argue that (1) an agent can be appropriately blamed for failing to assist someone in need, even if her failure to assist is not wrong, and that (2) an agent can be morally required to assist even if assisting is overly costly for her—more costly than what the relevant moral baseline is ordinarily taken to allow. Whether this is the case depends on whether the agent has previously failed (or not) to discharge her “prospective duties.” Once these duties are taken into consideration, even apparently moderate accounts of beneficence appear to be not very moderate after all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First descriptions of kleptomania as a mental disorder date back to the nineteenth century. For the first time, kleptomania as an accompanying symptom rather than a formal diagnosis was included in the classification of psychiatric disorders of the American Psychiatric Association DSM-I in 1952. It was included in the International Classification of Diseases ICD-10 and classified under "habit and impulse disorders". Kleptomania is a serious disorder, as numerous thefts are impulsively carried out, carrying the risk of detection and consequently criminal liability. In Poland, we lack epidemiological data, however, it is estimated that 5% of those who commit theft are affected by kleptomania. People suffering from this disorder often do not seek a medical opinion so reviewing such cases is challenging for expert psychiatrists. The authors have proposed the term "kleptomania spectrum" for defining cases in which patients have an intense urge to steal, experienced a sense of tension from such an action, and relief following it, however, the criterion of theft of a superfluous object, without a profitable motive for themselves or others is not met. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kleptomania is a psychiatric manifestation frequently encountered in neurological conditions, especially Parkinson’s disease. This disorder has traditionally been considered to be a part of the obsessive compulsive spectrum disorder, but recently the focus has shifted to possible associations with addiction disorders. There are no FDA approved medications for the treatment of kleptomania. While serotonergic medications form the mainstay treatment, questions have been raised regarding their effectiveness, especially with reports emerging about these medications paradoxically inducing kleptomania. Keeping these points in perspective, a short review of literature was performed about the neurobiology of kleptomania, and a treatment algorithm is suggested based on the findings.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljpsyc.v5i2.7305 SL J Psychiatry 2014; 5(2) 2-4

Book thieves were a familiar figure to the reading public of Australia and other English-speaking nations during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Their exploits were covered in books about books, library and medical journals, and in newspapers that reported their appearances in court, and treated them as a humorous oddity in other coverage. This article examines the historic concerns and assumptions about book thieves, as well as what these tropes reveal about prevailing discourses regarding thieves more generally. The book thief – invariably constructed in the popular imagination as a middle-class male – was a classed and gendered figure, one at odds with contemporary understandings of theft as an act committed by members of an uncultured criminal class. By scrutinizing the development of popular conceptions of the book thief as an entity clearly distinguishable from the ordinary thief, I demonstrate the centrality of literacy and literary culture to how thieves themselves were read. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]