WEDNESDAY, Sept. 28 (HealthDay News) — For a rising number of Americans, shopping has become more than a means to an end, or a pleasurable pastime.

Instead, experts say, members of this growing group of “compulsive shoppers” feel low when they’re not out shopping, and yearn for that special “high” that comes from browsing and buying.

Unfortunately, that high is usually short-lived: For most, the day’s spending usually ends in renewed anxiety and sadness as they return home and realize their latest acquisition isn’t making them any happier — and may have put them further into debt.

It’s a cycle that’s very reminiscent of other harmful pathological addictions, such as gambling, said researcher Helga Dittmar, a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Sussex in Brighton, U.K.

“Compulsive buying is often smiled about and belittled, either as ‘something we all do at times’ or the entertainment of the bored ultra-rich,” she said. “The reality is that it has serious consequences, like other addictions. It can lead to severe financial debt, breakdown of relationships and families, and impairment at work and at home.”

According to the last U.S. statistics available — collected in a 1992 study — compulsive shopping affected anywhere between 2 percent and 8 percent of Americans at that time. But experts believe prevalence of the disorder has risen since then.

Dittmar is the author of a new study investigating the psychological roots of compulsive buying, published in the September issue of the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.

In the study, Dittmar used data from the personal “shopping diaries” of 29 women (18 ordinary shoppers, 11 compulsive shoppers), plus the results of detailed questionnaires from 365 adults of varying age, which also included a fair number of compulsive shoppers.

She was able to pinpoint two “vulnerability factors” that appear to raise risks for compulsive buying.

“The first is a materialistic value system, the importance that a person attaches to material goods as a way of achieving major life goals, such as satisfaction and happiness,” according to Dittmar. In essence, she said, “materialists are more prone to go for material goods as a solution to any problem they might encounter.”

The second factor “concerns the self-concept, where a person who feels that they are far away from their ‘ideal’ self is more vulnerable to psychological problems,” Dittmar said.

In this type of situation, materialistic individuals may turn to excessive spending as a form of what she called “self-repair.”

“They’ll buy those consumer goods that symbolize a part of their ideal self — ‘If I buy a glamorous dress, I might feel like a glamorous person,’ ” Dittmar explained.

In fact, the vast majority of compulsive shoppers — about 90 percent — are women, and Dittmar’s study found clothing to be a major focus of their spending, probably because fashion is so tightly tied to self-image.

Women may also be more prone to the syndrome because shopping is traditionally viewed as a part of female, but not male, identity. And because some women are homemakers, Dittmar said that “they may have less opportunity for other “feel-good” strategies,” like working out at the gym or meeting friends for drinks.

The compulsive buyers’ personal shopping diaries revealed that most of the “good feelings” generated by their excessive spending is fleeting.

The journals showed that “their initial ‘high,’ straight after the purchase, was stronger than for ordinary buyers — but also that the high was short-lived,” the researcher said. In fact, compulsive shoppers were much more prone than ordinary spenders to experience “buyer’s remorse” once they