Increased Risk of Pathological Gambling when First-Degree Relatives Affected

A recent study conducted by researchers at the UI Carver College of Medicine in Iowa shows that pathological gambling may be significantly more common for those with family members afflicted by the dangerous habit. Findings regarding the study are published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

"Our work clearly shows that pathological gambling runs in families at a rate higher than for many other behavioral and psychiatric disorders," said Donald W. Black, MD, professor of psychiatry in the UI Carver College of Medicine, in a news release. "I think clinicians and health care providers should be alerted to the fact that if they see a person with pathological gambling, that person is highly likely to have a close relative with similar or the same problem. That is a teaching moment and they should probably encourage the patient to let their relatives know that help is available."

For the study, researchers examined 95 pathological gamblers and 91 control subjects. They determined a gambling diagnosis for every person in the study through interviews and proxy interviews.

Findings revealed that about 11 percent of the gambling relatives had been involved with pathological gambling compared to 1 percent of the control relatives. In other words, the odds of dealing with this issue were close to eight times higher if the problem ran in the family.

"People have always thought pathological gambling ran in families-anecdotal evidence certainly suggested it. But when you finally do a study like this, which is the largest of its kind, and come up with figures like this, it is quite striking," Black added, according to the news release.

"I think our findings should give impetus to neuroscientists who conduct molecular genetic studies to really pursue this," Black concluded. "Maybe this situation provides a better chance of finding genes that are linked to the gambling disorder, and maybe that would pave the way for improving our understanding of the genetic transmission in general for psychiatric disorders, particularly in the realm of addiction."