SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Shopping can be a necessity, a chore, or a fun way to spend an afternoon. But for some it is all-consuming. Doctors estimate as many as eight out of every 100 people in the United States are compulsive shoppers. Some have shopped their way into bankruptcy.

But now there's hope. Dr. Lorrin Koran, a psychiatry professor at Stanford University, has just completed a study of 24 San Francisco-area compulsive shoppers.

When the study began, many participants said they shopped or thought about buying up to eight hours a day. But that was before taking Celexa for 12 weeks.

Celexa is a common antidepressant. The study, funded by the makers of the drug, found Celexa showed promise in quieting uncontrollable urges to shop.

"At the end of the study, they said 'I'm not turning on the TV to shop, not looking at catalogue. I go to the mall and I don't buy anything. I don't have an interest in shopping.' It's gone. It's remarkable," Koran said.

Seventy-one percent of the participants said they had almost stopped compulsive shopping altogether while taking the antidepressant.

John Villa, with Consumer Credit Counseling Service in San Jose, often counsels compulsive shoppers facing financial ruin.

"From where we stand, anything that helps people get away from the need and the urge to spend money that they don't have falls into the heading of a good thing," Villa said.

Koran is not certain exactly why the prescription drug Celexa works, but he believes it may have something to do with the way it affects the serotonin levels in the brain. He said no one was surprised more about the effectiveness of the drug than the participants themselves.

"They found that after decades of being compulsive shoppers, it was gone. They couldn't believe it. It was very dramatic," Koran said.

And for the thousands of people, mostly women, who suffer from compulsive shopping disorder, there is a new way to stop spending out of control.

"It's treatable. They don't have to suffer -- that's the major message," Koran said.

Celexa does have some side effects, which include loss of sexual desire and sleepiness. And Koran is currently studying the effects of another antidepressant on kleptomaniacs.