An Analysis of Treatment-Seeking Behavior in Individuals with Gambling Disorder

This study sought to examine the differences in three groups of pathological gamblers: those who did not seek treatmen t (n = 94), those who sought therapy (n = 106) and those who sought medication therapy (n = 680). All subjects were assessed on a variety of measures including demographics, family history, gambling history, comorbid psychiatric disorders and an assortment of clinical variables such as the Qua lity of Life Inventory, Hamilton Depression and Anxiety Rating Scales, Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale for Pathologic Gambling (PG-YBOCS), Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, Eysenck Impulsiveness Questionnaire and select cognitive tasks. Those seeking treatment were more likely to be Caucasian, have lost more money in the past year due to gambling, and were more likely to have legal and social problems as a result of their gambling. Those seeking therapy or medical treatment also scored significantly higher on the PG-YBOCS. This study suggests that pathologic gamblers seeking treatment were m ore likely to exhibit obsessive–compulsive tendencies likely leading to the increased legal and social problems that exist in this group.
Source: Journal of Gambling Studies - Category: Addiction Source Type: research