Compulsive buying is just as common in men as in women, a nationwide telephone survey has found, and in its extreme forms may be a psychiatric illness — an impulse control disorder associated with abnormal levels of depression and anxiety.

一項全國性電話調查發現，強迫購物症男女一樣常見，而且在最極端的情形下，可能是一種精神病學疾病，因不正常的憂鬱和焦慮而引起的「衝動控制失序症或障礙」。

Researchers used a seven-item questionnaire to determine whether people felt a need to spend money,whether they were aware that their spending behavior was aberrant, whether they bought things to improve their mood and whether their buying habits had led to financial problems.

研究人員使用七項問卷來決定，是否人們覺得有必要花錢，他們是否明白，他們的消費行為已偏離常軌，他們買東西是否只為了改善心情及他們的購物習慣，是否已經造成財物困難。

They followed up with three questions designed to determine the degree of loss of control: How often have you just wanted to buy things and did not care what you bought? How often have you bought something and when you got home were not sure why you bought it? How often have you gone on a buying spree and just could not stop?

他們接著再提出三個問題，來決定失控的程度：你多常想買東西，而且不管買什麼東西，你多常買完東西回家後，不確定為什麼要買？你多常情不自禁大肆採購，無法自制？

A statistical analysis of the results found that 5.5 percent of men and 6.0 percent of women could be classified as compulsive shoppers — that is, people whose uncontrolled urges to spend money lead to serious negative consequences.

一項調查結果的統計分析發現，百分之五點五男性和百分之六女性可能列為有購物癖者，他們無法克制花錢的欲念，而且已經引起嚴重的負面後遺症。

Compulsive buying, sometimes called addictive shopping, is not a recognized psychiatric diagnosis, but it is now being considered for inclusion in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

強迫購物症，有時稱為購物癖，目前還不是已被認知的心理診斷，但在新版心智異常診斷與統計手冊中將考慮加入。

Dr. Lorrin Koran, the study's lead author and emeritus professor of psychiatry at Stanford, said compulsive buyers commonly suffer from other psychiatric disorders.

主持這項研究的史丹福大學精神病學榮譽退休教授柯蘭博士說，購物癖者通常會被其他精神失控症所苦。

“Many of those who come in for treatment suffer from depression, anxiety disorders and other impulse control disorders like pathological gambling and binge eating,” Dr. Koran said.

柯蘭博士說：「很多來看病的人都為憂鬱症、焦慮失控和其他衝動控制障礙所苦，像病態的嗜賭及暴食症。」

The results of the study were published in The American Journal of Psychiatry. Two of the paper's five authors report a financial relationship with several pharmaceutical companies.

研究結果發表在美國心理學期刊，報告的五位作者中，有兩位據報和幾家藥廠有財務關係。

An editorial notes that the recognition of such a condition as a mental illness would be controversial and that some would criticize it as creating a trivial disorder in order to “medicalize” a moral issue or to invent a reason to sell more drugs.

一篇評論指出，把這種情形看成一種心智疾病爭議很大，有人批評這只為了製造一個微不足道的行為失控，以便把一個道德問題「用醫學方法處理」，或營造一個可以推銷更多藥品的理由。

 Compulsive buying 強迫購物症，購物癖
impulse control disorder 衝動控制失序症或障礙
aberrant 偏離常軌，異常
loss of control 失控
binge eating 暴食症