Background: Compulsive buying (CB) has been observed mainly in modern women (up to 95%) in our Western society. Objective: To describe analytically the relationship between CB and biopsychosocial factors that encourage its development. Method: A review of specialised textbooks and the available literature in Medline/PubMed and SciELO on the relationship between CB and biopsychosocial factors was conducted. Results: CB is an impulse control disorder (often within a multi-impulsive pattern), with severe interference in psychosocial and financial functioning, which emerges in a postmodern context, with a significant association with changes in the female gender identity, with comorbidities mainly anxiety, mood, eating disorders, use/abuse of substances and personality (obsessive-compulsive, avoidant, borderline). It is usually triggered by negative affects (anguish, sadness, anger, frustration, loneliness), low self-esteem, external stimuli reinforced by the marketing system, value of social approval for consumption and/or hedonistic satisfaction. The combined treatment of cognitive-behavioural psychotherapy, psychoeducation and SSRI drugs seems to be more effective. Conclusions: The evidence shows that CB could be considered as a biopsychosocial phenomenon, more prevalent in women, in a postmodern socio-cultural historical background, that exceeds the autonomy, equality and competence in masculine domains achieved by the current woman, becoming a psychopathological disorder within the impulsive spectrum that has been included in the ICD-10.