Kleptomania has devastating repercussions. Also, as stealing is illegal, kleptomaniacs need to undergo therapy. It is also essential to eliminate the urge to steal to prevent further arrests and psychiatric illnesses.
However, you can control kleptomania with a mix of treatments and drugs.
1. Medications
A few medications include:
- Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs): SSRIs are the preferred medication for treating kleptomania. This is because it can prevent the brain's serotonin from reabsorption. Also, as the illness lowers serotonin levels, SSRIs cure kleptomania by making more neurotransmitters available to the brain.
- Valproic Acid: This anti-seizure drug relaxes the nervous system and lessens undesirable behaviour.
- Lithium: Lithium medication is known to improve some kleptomaniac symptoms. In addition, due to its ability to stabilise mood, lithium is often recommended for bipolar disorder. However, its effects on the central nervous system improve serotonin production and benefit kleptomania's impulse control systems.
- Opioid Receptor Antagonists: Opioid receptor antagonists are a class of medications known to bind to opioid receptors. They help people with impulse control issues and minimise the signs of compulsive behaviours and cravings.
2. Psychodynamic or Psychoanalytic Therapy
Patients with kleptomania have shown modest improvements after receiving psychoanalytic therapy. This therapy focuses on how kleptomaniac thieving habits symbolise a person's repressed desires. Nevertheless, psychoanalytic or psychodynamic therapy has been the treatment choice for many years before being freshly implemented with new viewpoints.
3. Group Therapy
Group therapy offers comfort in knowing that others are going through similar things. When kleptomania is under control, group therapy is the best form of treatment for kleptomania.
However, to remain in remission while sharing in the hardships of a potential relapse and conflicted feelings from a history of compulsive thievery, group support fosters a judgement-free zone of encouragement. Also, any struggle becomes more manageable with a companion.
4. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
In cognitive behavioural therapy, a type of psychotherapy or talk therapy, the focal point is how thought patterns influence behaviour. So, to cure kleptomania, the doctor collaborates with the patient to pinpoint the false ideas, attitudes, and thoughts that fuel the urge to steal.
In this regard, the most potent results come from cognitive behavioural strategies like covert sensitisation, in which the patient imagines the adverse effects of thievery. Also, as part of exposure therapy, the patient is exposed to situations in which they must repress the temptation to steal.