Kleptomania
Kleptomania is an impulse-control disorder involving repeated urges to steal things that are not needed for use or financial gain.[10][12] A person with kleptomania may feel caught between the urge and the wish to stop. Understanding the pattern can help you take a practical step toward care.
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What Is Kleptomania?
Kleptomania is a mental health condition involving repeated difficulty resisting urges to steal objects that are not needed for personal use or financial gain. It is an impulse-control disorder, not simply another name for shoplifting. A person with kleptomania is sometimes called a kleptomaniac, but the condition does not define the person.[10][12]
If you have slipped something into your bag that you could easily have paid for, felt relief, and then worried about what you had done, the pattern of urges, relief and regret may feel familiar. Understanding that experience can help you explain your concerns to a doctor or therapist.
- Kleptomania is a recognized psychiatric condition. It is classified as an impulse-control disorder, although researchers also study its similarities with addiction.[4][10]
- The stealing is not about obtaining something useful or valuable. Repeated urges, difficulty resisting, and relief of tension are central features.[12]
- Population estimates remain uncertain. Findings from psychiatric care cannot tell us how common kleptomania is in the wider community.[3][10]
- Treatment can reduce symptoms. A small placebo-controlled trial found that naltrexone reduced stealing urges and behavior more than placebo.[2]
- Other mental health concerns deserve attention too. Mood, anxiety, eating, and substance use disorders can occur alongside kleptomania.[12]
What Is a Kleptomaniac?
A kleptomaniac is a person who has kleptomania. The defining issue is repeated difficulty resisting stealing urges, rather than taking something for its use or monetary value.[12] Using “a person with kleptomania” keeps the focus on a health condition without reducing someone to a behavior.
Being able to afford a stolen item does not, by itself, establish kleptomania. What matters is the broader pattern of urges, motives, thoughts, and feelings surrounding the stealing.[10][12]
“Klepto” Slang Is Not the Same as Kleptomania
“Klepto,” sometimes spelled “clepto,” is informal shorthand. Calling someone that after they pocket a pen or take something once is not a diagnosis.
People may steal for money, need, peer approval, or other reasons without having kleptomania. The clinical condition involves a recurring urge that is not driven by personal use or financial gain. Neither a casual label nor a single theft tells the whole story.[10][12]
Is Kleptomania a Real Mental Illness?
Yes. Kleptomania is a recognized psychiatric disorder, described in clinical reviews as an impulse-control disorder. Research has examined its symptoms, related mental health conditions, and treatment options, although important gaps remain in the evidence.[10][12]
Recognizing a health condition does not erase the harm caused by stealing. It gives the person and their clinician a problem to understand and treat, rather than treating the behavior as a complete description of someone’s character.
Is Kleptomania in the DSM-5?
Yes. A recent clinical study used DSM-5 criteria and a face-to-face clinical interview to diagnose its kleptomania-only group.[11] A diagnosis involves more than the fact that someone has stolen. The clinician needs to understand the urges, reasons for taking items, and broader mental health concerns.[12]
Kleptomania belongs to the broader group of impulse-control disorders.[10] Other conditions studied in this area include pyromania and intermittent explosive disorder. These involve different behaviors and are not interchangeable diagnoses.[3]
Kleptomania Is Not the Same as Ordinary Theft
The key distinction is the clinical pattern and motive, not whether taking someone else’s property causes harm. Kleptomania involves repeated urges to steal objects that are not needed for use or financial gain, with tension that can ease after the act.[12]
| Feature | Theft for use or financial gain | Kleptomania |
|---|---|---|
| Main motive | Obtaining an item or its value | Acting on a repeated urge, rather than obtaining something needed for use or money |
| Relationship to the object | The object serves a practical or financial purpose | The object’s usefulness or value does not explain the stealing |
| Urges and thoughts | A recurring clinical urge pattern is not required | Repeated thoughts and difficulty resisting are important features |
| Feelings around the act | Feelings vary and do not establish a diagnosis | Tension may be relieved by stealing |
Feeling guilty afterward does not, on its own, distinguish kleptomania from other stealing. Nor should a clinician decide the diagnosis solely from whether a theft appeared planned or sudden. The broader pattern needs assessment.
The Signs and Symptoms of Kleptomania
Kleptomania symptoms center on recurring stealing urges, repetitive thoughts, difficulty resisting, and relief of tension after acting. Clinicians consider these experiences together rather than treating any single symptom as proof of the disorder.[12]
What a Clinician Assesses
An assessment should give you room to explain what happens, not just ask whether you have stolen. Useful discussion points include the following.[12][14]
- The urges and thoughts. How often do thoughts of stealing occur, and how difficult are they to put aside?
- The reason for taking an item. Was it needed for use or financial gain, or did taking it seem to matter more than having it?
- Attempts to resist. What have you tried, and what happens when you try not to act?
- Feelings before and afterward. Does tension build, does stealing bring relief, and what follows?
- Other health concerns. Mood symptoms, anxiety, eating concerns, alcohol or drug use, and medical history may all matter to the care plan.
These are conversation prompts, not a complete diagnostic checklist. A clinician can assess the whole picture and help decide which concerns need treatment. Stealing alone is not enough to label someone with kleptomania or another behavioral condition, such as conduct disorder.
The Tension-and-Relief Cycle Behind the Stealing
The urge-and-relief pattern can help explain why the behavior is difficult to interrupt. Repeated thoughts, difficulty resisting, and relief after stealing are described in the clinical literature.[12] An individual’s experience might include:
- An urge. A thought about stealing keeps returning or becomes difficult to ignore.
- Tension. Pressure builds while the person struggles with whether to act.
- Brief relief. Taking the item eases the tension.
- Distress afterward. The person may feel guilt, fear, or disappointment and want to stop.
This is not a fixed sequence that everyone experiences. Tracking your own thoughts, feelings, and actions can help a therapist identify where a different response is possible, rather than giving you another instruction to “just stop.”[14]
Why People With Kleptomania Steal
For someone with kleptomania, the urge matters more than the object. Stealing can bring relief from tension even when the item has no useful purpose for that person.[12] That explains part of the experience, but it does not establish the underlying cause.
The Urge and the Relief Matter More Than the Object
The causes of kleptomania are not fully established. Reviews have explored links with mood disorders, addictive behaviors, and brain injury, but those associations do not provide a single explanation for everyone.[9][10]
Describing stealing as “self-soothing” may capture someone’s experience of temporary relief. It remains a possible individual explanation, not proof that unresolved trauma or emotional distress causes most cases. Anxiety, depression, loneliness, boredom, or past trauma are worth discussing if they are relevant to you, without assuming they must explain the stealing.
A therapist can help you examine what actually happens before an urge, what you expect stealing to change, and what other responses you could practice. That makes the discussion specific to your experience rather than an assumed hidden cause.[14]
Is Kleptomania an Addiction to Stealing?
Kleptomania can feel like an addiction to stealing, and “shoplifting addiction” is an everyday description of that struggle. Clinically, kleptomania is classified as an impulse-control disorder. Researchers also study similarities with substance addictions, including shared clinical features and possible biological connections.[4][10]
Those similarities make comparison with behavioral addictions useful, but they do not formally reclassify kleptomania. Likewise, improvement with an addiction-related medication does not prove that the same reward circuit causes both conditions. Research on opioid pathways offers a possible treatment rationale, not a settled explanation of the disorder.[4][8]
How Common Kleptomania Really Is
Reliable general-population prevalence remains uncertain. Studies of people receiving psychiatric care show why stealing urges deserve clinical attention, but they cannot tell us how many people in the wider community have kleptomania.[3][10]
What a Psychiatric Inpatient Study Found
A hospital study illustrates why the setting matters. Researchers screened consecutively admitted adult psychiatric inpatients and used further clinical interviews to evaluate positive screens.[3]
| Diagnosis | Patients with the diagnosis |
|---|---|
| Kleptomania | 16 of 204 patients, or 7.8%.[3] |
| At least one impulse-control disorder | 63 of 204 patients, or 30.9%.[3] |
These findings describe that clinical sample, not all psychiatric wards or current national rates. They also do not establish what percentage of people who shoplift have kleptomania. The practical lesson is to ask about stealing urges during assessment rather than assume another diagnosis tells the whole story.[3]
Kleptomania and Co-Occurring Conditions
Kleptomania can occur alongside mood, anxiety, eating, and substance use disorders.[12] Comorbidity matters because care may need to address more than the stealing urges.
Depression, Anxiety, and Eating Disorders Deserve Attention
A clinical case series published in 1991 examined 20 people with current or past kleptomania.[5] Their histories showed substantial overlap with other conditions:
- All 20 had a lifetime diagnosis of a major mood disorder.[5]
- 16 had a lifetime anxiety disorder diagnosis.[5]
- 12 had a lifetime eating disorder diagnosis.[5]
These were lifetime diagnoses in a small clinical sample, not rates that apply to everyone with kleptomania. Still, if you are also experiencing depression, anxiety, eating concerns, or alcohol or drug problems, tell your clinician. Those concerns deserve attention alongside the stealing urges.[12]
Suicide Risk Deserves Attention
In a study of 107 adolescents and adults with kleptomania, 24.3% reported a suicide attempt.[1] Among those who had attempted, 92.3% attributed it specifically to kleptomania.[1] Attempts were associated with bipolar disorder and lifetime personality disorder.[1] These findings describe a clinical sample, not a prediction of any individual’s risk or proof of causation.
Tell a doctor or therapist if shame, fear, or hopelessness is becoming overwhelming, especially if you are thinking about hurting yourself. In the U.S., call or text 988 for immediate support with suicidal thoughts or emotional distress. You do not have to face those feelings alone.
Kleptomania, Shoplifting, and the Law
A diagnosis does not automatically erase the legal consequences of stealing. Clinical assessment and legal advice serve different purposes, and someone facing charges may need both.
Arrests Are a Real Concern
In a study of 107 adults with kleptomania recruited between 2001 and 2012, 82 had a history of shoplifting-related arrest.[6] This highlights the legal harm that can accompany the condition. It does not show that a particular treatment prevents reoffending or that early care is the most effective way to do so.
A Diagnosis Is Not an Automatic Legal Defense
A 2012 legal analysis described differences between jurisdictions over whether an inability to resist an impulse can affect criminal responsibility. Its argument for recognizing a limited “irresistible impulse” defense is a scholarly position, not a statement of current law everywhere.[7]
If you are facing charges or other legal consequences, a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction can explain the options for your case. A clinician can assess symptoms, document care, and provide treatment. Neither a diagnosis nor participation in treatment guarantees a legal outcome.
How Kleptomania Is Treated
Treatment for kleptomania may include psychotherapy, medication, and care for co-occurring conditions. There is evidence of benefit, particularly from a small naltrexone trial, but research remains limited.[2][10] The goals are fewer urges and thefts, better daily functioning, and a workable plan for difficult situations.
Naltrexone Can Reduce Stealing Urges
Naltrexone is an opioid antagonist, meaning it blocks opioid receptors. Researchers study whether this action can reduce reward-related urges across substance-related and behavioral conditions.[8][15] It does not simply switch off the brain’s entire reward system.
In an eight-week randomized trial of 25 adults with kleptomania, 23 completed the study.[2] Naltrexone produced significantly greater reductions in stealing urges, stealing behavior, and overall symptom severity than placebo.[2] It was reported as well tolerated during the study, but this small, short trial does not establish long-term success rates.[2]
A review published in 2016 identified one placebo-controlled kleptomania trial of naltrexone.[8]
Naltrexone use for kleptomania is off-label. The cited prescribing information lists alcohol dependence and blockade of opioid effects as indications, not kleptomania.[15]
A prescriber must review opioid medicines and opioid use first. The label contraindicates naltrexone in people taking opioid pain medicines, people currently dependent on opioids, including those receiving methadone or buprenorphine, and people in acute opioid withdrawal.[15] Do not stop another prescribed medication on your own to make naltrexone an option.
Before starting medication, discuss what improvement would look like, which side effects to watch for, how other medicines affect the plan, and when the response will be reviewed. A useful goal might be tracking changes in urge frequency, urge intensity, and stealing behavior, rather than judging progress from a single good or difficult day.
Antidepressants and Mood Medications Have a Different Role
Medication for a co-occurring condition may also be part of care. Some patients have reported reduced stealing while taking mood-related medication, but that does not establish these medicines as reliably effective kleptomania treatments.[5][12]
In the earlier case series, 10 of 18 patients receiving mood-related medications reported reduced stealing or remission.[5] This was an uncontrolled report, so it could not establish that medication caused the improvement.
SSRIs, a type of antidepressant, and mood stabilizers have both been explored in kleptomania treatment.[12] They are not interchangeable. Selection depends on the condition being treated and the person’s medical history, rather than a general promise that either will stop stealing.
Therapy Builds Skills for Responding to Urges
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) helps people examine connections between thoughts, feelings, and actions.[14] For kleptomania, therapy can focus on recognizing urges, understanding situations that bring them on, and practicing alternatives to stealing. The kleptomania-specific treatment literature remains limited.[13]
For example, you and a therapist might track tension while shopping, rehearse leaving before acting on an urge, and identify another activity or source of support. Relaxation training and alternative sources of satisfaction are among the approaches described in the treatment literature.[13]
A review also described covert sensitization, a technique involving mental rehearsal of unwanted behavior and its consequences.[13] This belongs in a therapist-guided treatment discussion, not a home exercise in frightening or humiliating yourself. Its inclusion in the literature does not establish that it is the best approach for every person.
A 2025 study included 13 women with kleptomania alone, 71 with kleptomania and an eating disorder, and 66 healthy controls.[11] Both clinical groups received CBT and had poor treatment outcomes.[11] This was not a randomized treatment trial, and kleptomania in the eating-disorder group was self-reported. The findings cannot predict how an individual will respond.[11]
If therapy is not helping, that is a reason to review the plan, not to conclude that you are beyond help. Ask how progress is being measured and whether a different approach, provider, or combination of treatments would better address your needs.[14]
| Treatment | Potential role | Evidence and limits |
|---|---|---|
| Naltrexone | Reduce stealing urges and behavior | Benefit in a small, short adult placebo-controlled trial. Use for kleptomania is off-label and requires an opioid medication and use review.[2][15] |
| Antidepressants or mood stabilizers | Address an appropriate co-occurring condition, with possible effects on stealing symptoms | Historical reviews and uncontrolled clinical reports do not establish a reliable response for everyone.[5][12] |
| CBT and related techniques | Develop awareness, coping skills, and alternatives to acting on urges | Limited kleptomania-specific research. A selected clinical study of women reported poor outcomes, underscoring the need to monitor and adapt care.[11][13] |
Getting Help for Kleptomania
You do not have to be arrested, exposed, or in crisis to deserve care. If stealing urges are difficult to control or are affecting your life, arranging an assessment is a practical next step.
If You Are the One Who Steals
Start with a primary care provider, psychiatrist, or licensed therapist. Ask whether they have experience assessing kleptomania or impulse-control difficulties. If finding the words is hard, you can say, “I’m having repeated urges to steal things I don’t need. I want help understanding the urges and stopping the behavior.”
Before the appointment, make a short note of:
- How often urges occur and whether you act on them.
- What you feel before, during, and after stealing.
- Whether the items are needed for use or financial gain.
- Situations that seem to increase urges and anything that has helped you resist.
- Other mental health symptoms, current medicines, and alcohol or drug use.
- Effects on relationships, finances, work, or legal concerns.
Before sharing sensitive details, ask how confidentiality works and when information may have to be shared. If you are arranging care for a child, ask how parents or caregivers will be involved.[14]
How to Stop Stealing While You Seek Help
Make a short plan for the next urge rather than relying only on a promise never to steal again. Practical safeguards to consider while arranging care include:
- Step away before acting. Leave the aisle or situation when you notice an urge building, before taking anything.
- Reduce unnecessary exposure to difficult situations. For example, use a shopping list, avoid browsing when urges are strong, or arrange to shop with a trusted person.
- Choose a support contact. Decide whom you can call or message when you need help following your plan.
- Bring setbacks into treatment. Tell your clinician what happened so the plan can be adjusted rather than abandoning care.
These are short-term safeguards, not a substitute for treatment or proof that you should manage this alone. A therapist can help you practice responses that fit your triggers and daily life.[14]
If Someone You Love Has Kleptomania
Offer support and clear boundaries at the same time. You can acknowledge that an urge is difficult to resist without excusing theft, covering it up, or accepting ongoing harm.
Talk privately about the behavior you have observed rather than using “kleptomaniac” as an accusation. Offer practical help arranging an assessment or getting to an appointment. You can also protect belongings and finances, decline to lie or take blame, and discuss how trust can be rebuilt through actions over time.
For a child or teenager, seek an age-appropriate assessment rather than assuming repeated stealing has a single explanation. Ask the clinician about their experience with that age group and how caregivers can participate in care.[14]
If you are ready to speak with a professional, ask about their experience with stealing urges, treatment approach, fees, insurance, and how progress will be reviewed.[14]
Frequently asked questions
Is Kleptomania a Real Disorder?
Yes. Kleptomania is a recognized psychiatric condition classified as an impulse-control disorder. It involves repeated difficulty resisting urges to steal objects that are not needed for personal use or monetary gain.[10][12] “Kleptomaniac” means a person with the condition, not anyone who has ever stolen.
The diagnosis helps guide assessment and treatment. It does not define someone’s character or automatically erase the consequences of stealing.
What Is the Difference Between a Kleptomaniac and a Thief?
The distinction is the clinical pattern and motive. Theft may be driven by wanting an item or its financial value. Kleptomania involves recurring urges to steal objects that are not needed for those purposes, with difficulty resisting and relief of tension after the act.[12]
Both involve taking property without permission. Guilt, the ability to afford an item, or whether a theft seemed planned does not establish the diagnosis on its own. A clinician needs to assess the broader pattern.
Why Do People With Kleptomania Steal?
The urge and the relief matter more than the object. Stealing can briefly ease tension even when the person does not need the item for use or financial gain.[12] That describes the experience, but the underlying causes are not fully established.
Researchers have explored links with mood disorders, addictive behaviors, and brain injury.[9] These associations do not prove a single cause. Describing stealing as self-soothing may fit an individual’s experience, but trauma or emotional distress should not be assumed to explain every case.
Can You Stop Stealing if You Have Kleptomania?
Yes, treatment can reduce stealing urges and behavior. A small randomized trial found greater improvement with naltrexone than with placebo.[2] Therapy also offers ways to understand thoughts and feelings, practice coping skills, and develop alternatives to acting on urges, although kleptomania-specific evidence remains limited.[13][14]
Results vary, and the research does not establish a guaranteed cure or long-term success rate. You can start by arranging an assessment and bringing notes about your urges, attempts to resist, and any other mental health concerns.
How Is Kleptomania Treated?
Treatment may include psychotherapy, medication, and care for co-occurring conditions. CBT-based approaches focus on understanding urges and practicing different responses.[13][14] Naltrexone reduced urges and stealing in a small placebo-controlled trial, but its use for kleptomania is off-label.[2][15]
A prescriber must review opioid medicines and opioid use before considering naltrexone because of its contraindications.[15] Ask how benefits, side effects, and progress will be monitored. If you are ready to discuss care, Explore online therapy options.
Is Kleptomania a Valid Legal Defense?
A diagnosis is not an automatic legal defense. Legal standards differ by jurisdiction and case. A scholarly analysis described those differences and argued for a limited irresistible-impulse defense, but that argument is not current law everywhere.[7]
If you face charges, a qualified local lawyer can explain your options. A clinician can assess symptoms and provide treatment. Getting care and obtaining legal advice can happen alongside each other, but neither diagnosis nor treatment guarantees a legal outcome.
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