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Abstract
Research has shown that physiological arousal in response to drug-related cues is a reliable sign of addiction. This phenomenon, termed cue reactivity, has been studied extensively in addictive behaviors such as alcohol or drug abuse and in bulimia. However, research in the area of pathological gambling, which is widely acknowledged as a psychological addiction, is almost non-existent. Therefore, the main purpose of the proposed study was to employ cue exposure procedures to better understand compulsive gambling behavior. Treatment-seeking pathological gamblers (n = 21), pathological gamblers in recovery with at least 3 months of abstinence (n = 21), and recreational gamblers (n = 21) were exposed to gambling-related cues to measure potential differences in reactivity depending on gambling status. Measures of cue reactivity included change in heart rate, subjective report of excitement and urge to gamble. Gambling-related cognitive distortions, negative mood, and personality characteristics known to be associated with addictive disorders were also assessed, including impulsivity and competitiveness as well as Novelty Seeking, Harm Avoidance, and Reward Dependence from Cloninger's Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire. The three groups of gamblers did not differ significantly in heart rate or excitement. However, significant differences among groups were found in terms of urge to gamble. The active pathological gamblers showed greater urges to gamble across all cues than abstinent pathological gamblers and, with marginal significance (p = .06), also social gamblers. Further exploration of these findings revealed that active pathological gamblers experience urges to gamble in response to exciting situations, whether or not they are gambling-related, whereas abstinent and social gamblers only report urges to an exciting gambling-related cue. This suggests that for pathological gamblers excitement itself, irrespective of its source, may become a conditioned stimulus capable of "triggering" gambling behavior. Findings also showed that personality traits including competitiveness and impulsivity were significantly higher among both pathological gambling groups compared to the social gamblers, indicating that these two traits in particular may be risk factors for the development of pathological gambling. Gambling-related cognitive distortions were higher among the active pathological gamblers compared to the social gamblers. Implications for treatment and future research are discussed.
