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 (chi2=12.569; df=1; P<.001) and to have a first-degree relative with an alcohol use disorder (chi2=6.994; df=1; P=.008) or any psychiatric disorder (chi2=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.