Family history and psychiatric comorbidity in persons with kleptomania

The current study was constructed to examine the family history and psychiatric comorbidity of a group of persons with kleptomania. Thirty-one subjects with DSM-IV kleptomania were administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) and the Minnesota Impulse Disorders Inventory (MIDI). The Family History Research Diagnostic Criteria (FH-RDC) were used to collect information about psychiatric disorders in first-degree relatives. Subjects with kleptomania were more likely than comparison subjects to have any lifetime impulse-control disorder (chi(2) = 12-569; df = 1; P <.001) and to have a first-degree relative with an alcohol use disorder (chi(2) = 6.994; df = 1; P =.008) or any psychiatric disorder (chi(2) = 12.056; df = 1; P =.001). Persons with kleptomania appear to have a higher lifetime prevalence of impulse-control disorders and are more likely to have first-degree relatives with alcohol problems than are comparison subjects. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.