Gambler's Personality Resembles That of Substance Abuser

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A new study shows the personality profiles of problem gamblers resemble profiles of those with alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine-associated addictive disorders.

In previous studies, it has been hard to identify personality characteristics associated with gambling. However, past studies have shown problem gambling is linked to alcohol dependence and suggested a link to drug and nicotine dependence.

Researchers, including Wendy S. Slutske, Ph.D., of the University of Missouri-Columbia, conducted personality evaluations of 939 18-year-olds from Dunedin, New Zealand, who had problems with gambling, alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine dependence. They then compared these evaluations to interviews of the same individuals at the age of 21.

Two analyses of the information were conducted. Researchers first studied the relationship between problem gambling and each of the substance abuse disorders. In the second, researchers looked at the connection between 10 basic aspects of personality variation with problem gambling and each of the substance abuse disorders.

"Past-year problem gambling was significantly associated with past-year alcohol dependence, cannabis dependence, and nicotine dependence," the authors report. "The associations between problem gambling and the three substance-use disorders were similar in magnitude and were nearly as large as the well-established association between alcohol and nicotine dependence."

The researchers found those diagnosed with problem gambling at the age of 20 were more likely to score higher for negative emotionality and for impulse and risk-taking behaviors on personality evaluations at age 18.

"A focus on more basic traits, such as individual differences in personality, is a promising approach for understanding the high rate of comorbidity [conditions which occur together] of pathological and problem gambling with other addictive disorders," the authors write. "In the present study, the personality profile associated with problem gambling was strikingly similar to the profiles associated with alcohol, cannabis and nicotine dependence."

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SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association;2005;62:769-775