Contrary to widespread stereotypes characterizing women as shopaholics, a new Stanford University study has found that nearly as many men as women go on binge shopping sprees and suffer from compulsive buying disorder.

The study, published in the October issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, found that six per cent of women and 5.5 per cent of men had symptoms consistent with compulsive buying disorder, which is characterized by an intrusive and unstoppable impulse to buy.

"The widespread opinion that most compulsive buyers are women may be wrong," senior author Lorrin Koran, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, wrote in the study.

More than one in 20 adults in the United States suffer from the disorder, which can lead to severe financial hardship, the researchers noted.

"Compulsive buying leads to serious psychological, financial and family problems including depression, overwhelming debt and the breakup of relationships," Koran wrote.

"People don't realize the extent of damage it does to the sufferer."

Stretching to their credit limits

In the spring and summer of 2004, researchers conducted a national, random-sample telephone survey and interviewed 2,513 adults about their buying attitudes and financial backgrounds.

Compulsive shoppers, who were generally found to have incomes of less than $50,000, commonly reported that they had stretched their credit lines almost to their limits. Respondents suffering from the disorder also said that they were four times as likely as other respondents to make the minimum payment on their credit card balances.

Eric Hollander, a professor of psychiatry at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine, said in an accompanying editorial that the study raised many questions about the classification of compulsive shopping as a psychiatric disorder.

"One can ask if people are morally responsible for their behavior if they commit unethical acts because of what has been classified as a mental disorder. Similarly, if an individual diagnosed with an impulse control disorder does something illegal, is he or she responsible?" Hollander wrote in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Hollander suggested that viewing the disorder from a medical perspective may lead to better treatment and understanding of vulnerability factors.