New Study Indicates that Problem Gambling Runs in Families

New Study Indicates that Problem Gambling Runs in Families

New Study Indicates that Problem Gambling Runs in Families
A new study from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine has concluded that problem gambling behavior runs in families. Researchers hope that the study might help them in finding ways to treat gambling addiction.

The study, which was conducted over the course of two years, began in 2002. It was conducted by Dr. Donald W. Black, who held interviews with problem gambling addicts and their families. In all, 31 pathological gambling addicts were interviewed, along with members of their immediate families, including parents, siblings, and children. An equal number of people were interviewed as part of a control group. The study was published in the February issue of the Psychiatry Research Journal.

"Something is being passed along in these families that increases the person's likelihood of engaging in impulsive and ultimately self-destructive behavior," said Black, who is a professor of psychiatry at the Iowa City medical school.

Dr. Black’s study also suggested that families with a high incidence of problem gambling addiction also have high proportions of drug and alcohol abuse and psychiatric disorders. In many cases, all three disorders are found in the same family or even the same person.

Dr. Black said that he designed a study which took family into account because of previous suggestions that there might be a gene or cluster of genes that contribute to a tendency towards all sorts of addictive behavior.

"If this disorder runs in families, it is most likely to cluster in those that you share more of your genes with," he said.

Another result of the study is that gambling problems tend to develop later in life for women than for men, but that women’s gambling tends to become more destructive more quickly. The average age at which men develop a gambling addiction is 36, while women develop addictions at, on average, approximately 39 years of age.

According to Dr. Black’s study results, gamblers are more likely to be single, widowed, or divorced than people in the general population. Even when married, pathological gamblers have higher rates of marital dysfunction.

"Pathologic gamblers tend to have chaotic lives," he said.

Dr. Black hopes that the study’s results will lead to more family addiction studies, and that scientists will begin to look more closely at isolating the gene or gene cluster that leads to the development of a gambling addiction.

"Ideally, it would be nice to discover a drug that would reliably interrupt that urge," he said.

Dr. Black’s next project will be a study, funded with a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which will include interviews with 100 problem gamblers and their families.

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