Pathological Gambling
Pathological gambling, also known as compulsive gambling or disordered gambling, is a recognized mental disorder characterized by a pattern of continued gambling despite negative physical, psychological, and social consequences.
Cluster Number:
Wiki Number: PW156
Diagnosis: Pathological Gambling
US Patients: 0.6 of 1%
World Patients:
Sex Ratio: M+;W
Age Onset:
Brain Area: some victims have lower norepinephrine than normal gamblers, which is normally secreted under stress or thrill; or lack serotonin.
Symptoms: Continuous gambling despite negative consequences to self or family and in spite of desire to stop. Also considered an addiction.
Progression:
Causes: impulsivity and comorbidity with alcohol problems; dopamine dysregulation has been observed.
Medications: paroxetine, lithium, palmefene
Therapies: Gamblers’ Anonymous, CBT, 1/3 recover by themselves
Youtube Video: A Look at Problem Gambling
Amazon or Library Book: Can’t Just Stop:
An Investigation of Compulsion (Gambling)
Support Group: gamblersanonymous.org; 626-960-3500
(Gamblers’ Anonymous International)
4 CURRENT ARTICLES
FROM PUBMED
The world-wide medical research
reports chosen for each diagnosis
Clicking each title opens the
PubMed article’s summary-abstract.
- Psychometric Validation of the Gambling Craving Scale in a Treatment-Seeking Sampleby Anthony M Battaglia on May 3, 2024
The Gambling Craving Scale (GACS) is a multifaceted measure of gambling craving. Initial validation work by Young and Wohl (2009) in university student samples showed that the GACS had a three-factor structure capturing dimensions of Desire, Anticipation, and Relief. Despite its potential clinical utility as a measure of craving, the GACS has yet to be validated in people seeking treatment for gambling problems. Accordingly, we examined the psychometric properties in a sample of people (N = 209;...
- Decision-making under conditions of explicit risk and uncertainty in autistic and typically developing adolescents and young adultsby Marie K Krug on May 2, 2024
Adolescence has been characterized as a period of risky and possibly suboptimal decision-making, yet the development of decision-making in autistic adolescents is not well understood. To investigate decision-making in autism, we evaluated performance on 2 computerized tasks capturing decision-making under explicit risk and uncertainty in autistic and non-autistic adolescents/young adults ages 12-22 years. Participants completed the Game of Dice Task (32 IQ-matched participant pairs) to assess...
- Boosting decision-making in rat models of early-life adversity with environmental enrichment and intranasal oxytocinby Sara Joushi on April 27, 2024
Impaired decision-making constitutes a fundamental issue in numerous psychiatric disorders. Extensive research has established that early life adversity (ELA) increases vulnerability to psychiatric disorders later in life. ELA in human neonates is associated with changes in cognitive, emotional, as well as reward-related processing. Maternal separation (MS) is an established animal model of ELA and has been shown to be associated with decision-making deficits. On the other hand, enriched...
- Prevalence and clinical phenotypes of adult patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and comorbid behavioral addictionsby Giacomo Grassi on April 26, 2024
CONCLUSIONS: Behavioral addictions are highly frequent in adult ADHD patients. Comorbid patients seem to have a more complex phenotype characterized by more severe ADHD, mood and anxiety symptoms, higher impulsivity levels and greater functional impairment.