{"id":25606,"date":"2025-04-10T10:03:54","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T08:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/?p=25606"},"modified":"2025-04-10T10:07:53","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T08:07:53","slug":"kleptomania-bellvitge-leads-a-new-approach-in-the-study-and-treatment-of-the-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/2025\/04\/kleptomania-bellvitge-leads-a-new-approach-in-the-study-and-treatment-of-the-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Kleptomania: Bellvitge leads a new approach in the study and treatment of the disease"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kleptomania is a psychological disorder in which the person cannot resist the urge to steal an object that they do not need<\/strong> for personal use and that does not involve monetary gain. Just before doing so, they feel some emotional tension and the action then produces a brief pleasure, satisfaction or relief that is often followed by feelings of guilt and\/or shame. Kleptomania is diagnosed in approximately 0.3-2.6% of the population (4 to 24% in cases of theft) and 3 out of 4 patients are women<\/strong>, although experts are convinced that the real prevalence is higher because stigma is a strong barrier when it comes to seeking help.<\/p>\n

Unlike impulsivity, where the patient cannot control certain behaviors despite being aware of the damage they entail, compulsiveness entails a feeling of being forced to perform an action in a persistent and repetitive way that will not later bring any benefit. In impulsivity, the behavior seeks immediate gratification, while in compulsiveness the aim is to relieve a state of tension, an emotional discomfort.<\/p>\n

Kleptomania has been traditionally considered an impulsive disorder and is treated as such, but some researchers have also detected certain compulsive disorder aspects<\/strong>. In addition, it usually presents with comorbidities such as eating disorders (ED) or substance abuse, which aggravate the patient’s situation<\/strong> and significantly reduce the success of treatment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The kleptomania psychological profile combines compulsive and impulsive aspects<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is still a great lack of scientific evidence on kleptomania and its current diagnosis and treatment are mainly based on case studies. Years ago, some studies already proposed the combination of impulsive and compulsive aspects in kleptomania, but only at a theoretical level. In order to advance this hypothesis, the IDIBELL Psychoneurobiology of Behavioral Disorders research group and the Clinical Psychology Service of the Bellvitge University Hospital have carried out one of the few published studies that focuses exclusively on describing kleptomania, includes only women and, in addition, analyzes the results of treatment<\/strong>. It counted on 150 participants, 84 of them in treatment only for kleptomania (13) or kleptomania and eating disorder (71) and the rest (66) without any disorder. Besides collecting their sociodemographic and clinical data, the participants have completed questionnaires that assess various psychological and psychopathological aspects, personality and impulsivity.<\/p>\n

The research team has analysed the data and shared the results in Scientific Reports<\/em>,\u00a0 a Nature<\/em> publication, which provide valuable information on the psychological profiles associated with kleptomania. The groups of patients with kleptomania and with kleptomania and eating disorder showed more dysfunctional profiles at all levels, but, when comparing between them, it was evident that those patients with eating disorders tended to be more impulsive, while the group with only kleptomania showed a greater tendency to compulsiveness<\/strong> (worry, anxiety, tension, lack of flexibility, etc.). In both groups, these traits could affect the response to treatment. This confirms that kleptomania must be considered in all its compulsive-impulsive complexity, and the individual aspects of each patient must be included, as well as the presence of comorbidities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The need to find more specific treatments<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some healthcare professionals are concerned that many affected people do not proactively seek help<\/strong>. “Clinical psychologists usually diagnose kleptomania indirectly in patients who are already undergoing psychological treatment for other disorders. The few cases that proactively seek help usually do so forced by their close environment or by legal charges, but not for their own reason, since they are usually afraid of the stigma,” explains Dr. Susana Jim\u00e9nez-Murcia<\/strong>, researcher at IDIBELL and clinical psychologist at Bellvitge University Hospital and leader of this study, and adds that “Because of all this, the diagnosis and treatment of kleptomania come too late and are not optimal<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Currently, the most common treatment for kleptomania is cognitive-behavioral therapy to increase self-control strategies, but in many cases it is not enough<\/strong> to treat this disease in all its complexity. This is also the treatment that the patients in this study have followed. Dr. Lucero Mungu\u00eda<\/strong>, psychologist and researcher at IDIBELL and first author of this publication, proposes that “other options could be considered, <\/strong>such as exposure therapy and response prevention, used for obsessive-compulsive disorder, and combined with training in inhibitory control and emotional regulation”. According to Dr. Mungu\u00eda, this approach would be “especially beneficial in those cases with comorbidities such as eating disorders or behavioral addictions. In some cases, we are already implementing some innovative techniques such as serious games<\/em><\/strong>, video games specially designed to improve emotional regulation skills”.<\/p>\n

From IDIBELL and Bellvitge Hospital, the research team wants to take the opportunity to echo this problem: “We want to remind the entire population that kleptomania is a mental disorder that generates significant discomfort in patients, mostly women, and that it can be treated. We invite those affected to seek help from their family doctor, who will refer them to a specialist team.<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) is a research center established in 2004 specialized in cancer, neuroscience, translational medicine, and regenerative medicine. It counts on a team of more than 1.500 professionals who, from 73 research groups, publish more than 1.400 scientific articles per year. IDIBELL is participated by the Bellvitge University Hospital and the Viladecans Hospital of the Catalan Institute of Health, the Catalan Institute of Oncology, the University of Barcelona, <\/em>\u200b\u200b<\/em>and the City Council of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.<\/em><\/p>\n

IDIBELL is a member of the Campus of International Excellence of the University of Barcelona HUBc and is part of the CERCA institution of the Generalitat de Catalunya. In 2009 it became one of the first five Spanish research centers accredited as a health research institute by the Carlos III Health Institute. In addition, it is part of the “HR Excellence in Research” program of the European Union and is a member of EATRIS and REGIC. Since 2018, IDIBELL has been an Accredited Center of the AECC Scientific Foundation (FCAECC).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kleptomania is described for the first time not only as an impulsive disorder, but also as a compulsive disorder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":25607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[301,188,327,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-neuroscience-area","category-neuroscience-program","category-psychoneurobiology-of-eating-and-addictive-behaviours","category-sin-categorizar"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2025-04-26 04:32:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25608,"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25606\/revisions\/25608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idibell.cat\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}