Shoppers, stop

Nalmefene is a drug used to counter narcotics. It has previously been used to stem the urge to bet in gamblers.

Nalmefene is a drug used to counter narcotics. It has previously been used to stem the urge to bet in gamblers. It is now being tested to help stem the urge to splurge. It may well be asked whether that needs to be treated. Shopping is serious business. No survey is required to prove that shopping works wonders as a stress-buster, a wallet-buster and boredom-buster. Consumer behaviour is one of the most studied disciplines today and wooing the customer the biggest global mantra. But like everything else, it is when the balances get tipped just so and a segment of people can’t stop shopping that it becomes a very serious condition, akin perhaps to shoplifting.

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Like other addictions, compulsive shopping also leads to family breakdowns and all sorts of trauma. Thus, shopping has been upgraded from being a mere ‘bad’ habit to a ‘treatable condition’ (which, come to think of it, sounds worse). Don’t blame the psychiatrists, behavioural analysts, neurologists and endocrinologists — they’re only doing their job in demonstrating that the chemical rushes experienced by compulsive shoppers are akin to those released in gamblers. And Nalmafene can treat that.

Now the trick for all those well-intentioned shopper-stoppers is to define the compulsive shopper. For most shoppers of today are bound to feel that for every pill, one creates an ill.