Alzheimer's Medication Can Be Used to Cure Shopaholics

From: Denise B.

Sent: May 29, 2012

To: undisclosed recipients

Subject: Fw: Alzheimer's Medication Can Be Used to Cure Shopaholics

Hey Dennis if your like me and can't walk into a store without buying something, help may be available. A new research suggests that a drug designed to treat Alzheimer's disease can be used to successfully treat people who suffer from shopping addictions.

Serious addiction to shopping, which is correctly referred to as "compulsive buying disorder", is actually a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). While it may sound amusing, people with the disorder can rack up huge debts—and doctors have struggled to find an effective treatment.

But apparently now a team of psychiatrists from the University of Minnesota has tested out an Alzheimer's medication called memantine in a small clinical trial to assess its effectiveness in treating compulsive buying. The medication acts on a chemical called glutamate, which is found in the brain, and is linked to both the development of dementia and obsessiveness.

The results suggest that the medication can reduce symptoms by half—measured in terms of time and money spent shopping cutting impulse buying and generally reducing impulsive urges, thoughts and behavior. The results are published in the Annals of Clinical Psychiatry.

For some perspective on the disorder, an average patient involved in the study was earning $60,000 a year, but spending 61 percent of that income on impulsive purchases—so the reductions make a marked difference to the financial circumstances of those involved. I sure a few of your visitors have this disease and would love to have a way to cure it. Please share. Thanks Denise.