Review. The neurobiology of pathological gambling and drug addiction: an overview and new findings.

ABSTRACT: Gambling is a prevalent recreational behaviour. Approximately 5% of adults have been estimated to experience problems with gambling. The most severe form of gambling, pathological gambling (PG), is recognized as a mental health condition. Two alternate non-mutually exclusive conceptualizations of PG have considered it as an obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder and a 'behavioural' addiction. The most appropriate conceptualization of PG has important theoretical and practical implications. Data suggest a closer relationship between PG and substance use disorders than exists between PG and obsessive-compulsive disorder. This paper will review data on the neurobiology of PG, consider its conceptualization as a behavioural addiction, discuss impulsivity as an underlying construct, and present

SUBMITTER: Potenza MN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2607329 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature