News

Men are just as likely as women to become shopaholics, according to a U.S. study. But men are less inclined to seek professional help for their uncontrollable urges to spend.

The findings come as a surprise to researchers who had assumed compulsive buying was primarily a female affliction. That's because 80 to 90 per cent of the people in treatment programs are women. "So, it was thought women were the ones who suffered the most from the disorder," explained lead researcher Lorrin Koran of Stanford University School of Medicine.

In the latest study, the researchers commissioned a random telephone survey of 2,500 households in the United States. People were asked a series of questions to gauge whether they fit the pattern of an addicted shopper. The results, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, revealed that 5.5 per cent of men and 6 per cent of women -- almost identical figures -- appeared to suffer from compulsive buying.

The problem is not a trivial matter and should not be confused with an occasional shopping spree, Dr. Koran stressed.

People with the disorder are often struck with "an irresistible, intrusive and senseless impulse" to buy lots of things they don't need. "Compulsive buying leads to serious psychological, financial and family problems, including depression, overwhelming debt and the breakup of relationships," Dr. Koran explained.

He would like to see the health profession recognize compulsive shopping as a unique illness with its own separate listing in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders -- essentially the medical bible for mental illness. Right now, it is just lumped into the general category of impulse-control disorders. He believes greater recognition of the problem would spur more research into causes and treatments.

Although men and women are equally prone to the disorder, one thing still sets them apart: what they buy. Women tend to purchase clothes and accessories during a shopping frenzy, while men buy electronic gadgets and tools.

Prostate drug warning

Some drugs commonly used to combat prostate cancer may place patients at increased risk of heart disease and diabetes, a recent study warns.

The injected drugs are known as gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists. They suppress the production of testosterone and have demonstrated clear benefits in cases where the cancer has spread beyond its original site. But their value is not so clear in cases of less advanced prostate cancer.

The U.S. researchers found that men treated with a GnRH-related drug had a 44-per-cent higher risk of developing diabetes and a 16-per-cent greater chance of heart disease than men who were not receiving hormone therapy.

"This study shows that a common hormonal treatment for prostate cancer may put men at significant risk for other serious diseases," the lead researcher, Nancy Keating of Harvard Medical School, said in a statement released with the study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. She suggested the treatment be used judiciously in those patients who are most likely to benefit from it.

New MS drug

Patients who suffer from multiple sclerosis will soon have a new treatment.

Health Canada has granted its approval for the sale of Tysabri, which is touted as being "the first of a new class of MS treatments."

MS is a disorder in which the patient's own immune system attacks the protective covering on nerves. It can affect vision, hearing, memory and movement.

The new drug is meant for patients with the most common form of the disease -- "relapsing-remitting MS" -- characterized by periods of well-defined attacks followed by complete or partial recovery. Clinical trials suggest Tysabri, also known as natalizumab, can significantly reduce attacks.

However, the drug is not risk free. In the United States, where it has been available since 2004, two patients died from brain infections. Biogen Idec, the drug's manufacturer, says it will set up a safety surveillance program for Canadian patients.

Although the price has not been set yet, it likely won't be cheap. The U.S. price is $28,400 a year. The drug is recommended for patients who don't respond well to other treatments.

Treatment letdown

Newer is not necessarily better -- especially when it comes to prescription drugs.

Take the case of drug treatments for schizophrenia, one of the most debilitating mental disorders. The first generation of antipsychotic drugs had a lot of nasty side effects. So, much hope had been riding on a newer generation of medications. And in recent years, doctors have tended to prescribe the new drugs, which are a lot more expensive than the original medications.

Now, however, a major study published in Archives of General Psychiatry has found that the newer drugs aren't much better.

In the study, financed by the British government, 227 schizophrenia patients were randomly divided into two groups: one got the older drugs, the other the newer ones. After one year, there was no significant difference in the "quality of life" measurements between the two groups.

"The second-generation antipsychotic [drugs] are not the great breakthrough in treatments they were once thought to be; rather, they represent an incremental advance at best," a commentary accompanying the study says.