Impulsivity and compulsive buying are associated in a non-clinical sample: an evidence for the compulsivity-impulsivity continuum?

Objective: Compulsive buying is controversial in clinical psychiatry. Although it is defined as an obsessive-compulsive disorder, other personality aspects besides compulsivity are related to compulsive buying. Recent studies suggest that compulsivity and impulsivity might represent a continuum, with several psychiatric disorders lying between these two extremes. In this sense, and following the perspective of dimensional psychiatry, symptoms of impulsivity and compulsivity should correlate even in a non-clinical sample. The present study aims to investigate whether these two traits are associated in a healthy adult sample.

Methods: We evaluated 100 adults, with no self-reported psychiatric disorders, using the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 and two scales of compulsive buying.

Results: Using multiple linear regressions, we found that impulsivity accounted for about 15% of variance in the compulsive-buying measure.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that an association between impulsivity and compulsive buying occurs even in non-clinical samples, evidence that compulsivity and impulsivity might form a continuum and that compulsive buying might be an intermediate condition between these two personality traits.