What Doctors Don't Tell YouWe all know that, for some women, shopping is a drug. So now, those clever medical researchers have come up with a cure. . .a drug.
Researchers at Stanford University in California have been giving 21 compulsive shoppers the drug citalopram, an SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor), and 80 per cent of these people report feeling less anxious, depressed or compulsive after taking it for three months. Three patients have dropped out because of side effects.
A better known SSRI is Prozac, and its many adverse reactions include insomnia, anxiety, nervousness and tremors.
Enough to make you want to just forget it and go shopping instead (Lancet, 2000; 356: 2163).
Maryon Stewart
Tom Ferguson MD
Daniel Redwood DC