Donald Black, a psychiatrist at the University of Iowa College of Medicine, and Susan McElroy, psychiatrist at the University of Cincinnati, claim to have found a drug to cure compulsive shoppers of their incessant need to splurge (New Scientist, Vol No ).

Compulsive shopping is probably closest in nature to a class of psychiatric complaints called impulsive drive disorders, which include uncontrollable urges to steal or pull out one's hair. This led Black to use the drug fluvoxamine, which is used to treat people with depression. The results were dramatic. The 7 chronic buyers who were experimented upon felt their urge to shop wane and the time they spent shopping decreased markedly.