Compulsive Buying: Psychopathological Condition, Coping Strategy or Sociocultural Phenomenon? A Review

Compulsive Buying: Psychopathological Condition, Coping Strategy or Sociocultural Phenomenon? A Review

Objectives: Compulsive buying (CB) has been conceptualized variously as an obsessive-compulsive, impulse control, or addictive spectrum condition; as a coping strategy for negative mood; and as a mere phenomenon of materialistic societies. The objective of this review was to evaluate the published literature on CB from a biopsychosocial perspective, for support for its classification among these options.

Methods: A search of the psychiatric literature was conducted, using PubMed, ProQuest and EBSCOHOST, for all articles containing the terms “compulsive buying” or “compulsive shopping” and published in English up to February 2015. Articles were also obtained from secondary search engines like Google Scholar, and the citation lists of sourced articles were also searched for additional references.