Hitting the slot machines every weekend may be a bigger problem than you think.
According to a new study by Anna Goudriaan and her team at the Amsterdam Institute for Addiction Research, the brain of a compulsive gambler and an alcoholic are one and the same.
Researchers analyzed brain activity scans of 15 people who showed signs of pathological gambling, in addition to 16 individuals who did not. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to observe their brain activity during a gambling game involving risk and reward evaluation.
The study found that pathological gamblers had more activity in the bilateral ventral striatum, the bilateral ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and the left insula when they were expecting a win, but there was no difference in brain activity between the two groups when they were anticipating a loss.
Researchers explain that compulsive gamblers have a tendency to be overly optimistic about their outcomes.
In short, these individuals have a heightened expectation of reward as opposed to casual gamblers who do not.
The anticipation of a greater reward triggers the increased desire to gamble, says Goudriaan. In the study, Goudriaan says, “When the brain of problem gamblers was activated more during the expectation phase of gambling [before the outcome of the game], this was associated with a higher level of intense, urgent, or abnormal desire (craving) to take up gambling activities.”
In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Disorders, coming out May 2013, which provides criteria for mental disorder classification, pathological gambling will be categorized under “addiction and related disorders.” It will be recognized as the first addiction that isn’t dependent on substances like drugs or alcohol.
With pathological gambling, the anticipation of a high reward is the addictive element.
Goudriaan is optimistic about the study’s results because it opens up the possibility of use of high frequency brain stimulation, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS), to reduce mental activity, which would act as a supplementary treatment to reduce stimulation in the three parts of the brain associated with pathological gambling.
Goudriaan and her team are currently running tests using rTMS on alcoholics to see if it alters their neural expectations of rewards.
Because of the ease of access to casinos and a lack of regulation, the persistence of a pathological gambling addiction is dangerous.
Addiction expert Stanton Peele says while alcohol and drug consumption is regulated, the government plays a crucial role in promoting gambling through race tracks, administering lotteries, and licensing casinos.
Despite the differences between pathological gambling and substance addiction, John Grant, MD from the University of Chicago’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neuroscience, believes the two should be classified together and used for medical screening.
Grant suggests physicians not only ask about smoking, drinking, or drug use, but also pathological gambling, as a means to assess potential problematic behaviours.
Charlotte Pedersen, Contributor
