The essential feature of kleptomania is a recurrent failure to resist impluses to steal objects not needed for personal use or their monetary valu. The objects taken are given away, retuned surreptitiously, or kept and hidden Kleptomaniaes usaull have the money to pay for the object they impulsively steel. As in other umpulse disorders, kleptomania is chracterized by mounting tension before the act followed afterward by gratification and less tension with or without gult, renorsem or depression. The stealing is not planned and does not involve others. Although the thets fo not always consider the chance of their apprehensio. Although kleptomaniaes may feel guilt and anxiety after the the theft, they goal, the diagnosis is not kleptomania, for in lkeptomania, the act of stealing itself is the goal.
Epidemilogy :
   Kleptomania is apparently quite rare, to fewere than 5 percent of arrested shoplifters give a history consistent with the disorder, and in some of these cases, the history may have been fabricated to conform to the stereotype of the disorder. The sex ratio is unkonw, but shoplifting itself is more common among females, and thus kleptomania related shoplfting is also probably more common in females.
Etiology :
    As with other disorders of impulse control, brain disease and metnal relardation have sometimes been associated the expression of the aggressive impulses in kleptomania, others have discerned a libidinal aspcet. Those who focus on symbolism seee meaning in the act itself , the object stolen, and the cictim of the theft. Kleptomania is often assciated with other psychological disturbances, such as chronic depression, anorexia nervosa, bulimia, and pyromania. The symptoms of kleptomania tend to appear in times of significat strees (e.g., losses, separations, and the ending of important relationships) Analytic writers have focused on tealing by children and adolescents. Anna freud pointed out that first thefts form the initial oneness between mother and child. Abraham worte of the central feeling of being neglected, injured, or unwated. One theoretician established seven categories of stealing in chronically acting out chlidren as a means of restoring the lost mother chlid relationship. As an aggressive act, as a defense against fears of being damaged, as a means of seeking punishment as a means of restoring or adding to self esteem, in connection with and as a reaction to a family secret, and as excitement and a substitute for a sexual act. One or more of these categories can also apply to adult kleptomania.
(Author is Consultant Psychiatrist at Raahat Hospital, Aurangabad.)