Thursday, October 14, 2010

"Four Kinds Of Compulsive Gamblers Identified"

From Nano Patents and Innovations:

Disorganised and emotionally unstable, poorly adapted, suffering from alcohol problems, impulsive, or with a "globally adapted" personality. These are the features of the four diagnosed types of compulsive gamblers identified by researchers at the University Hospital of Bellvitge (IDIBELL) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). According to the scientific team, only one of these four shows signs of a significant pathology.

Caravaggio, The Cardsharps, c. 1594.
Credit: Wikipedia

"We need to use different treatments for each sub-group of pathological gamblers in order to respond to their specific therapeutic difficulties and needs", Susana Jiménez Murcia, co-author of the study and coordinator of the Pathological Gambling Unit at the Bellvitge-IDIBELL Hospital in Barcelona, tells SINC.

The results of the study, which has been published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, show that it is possible to distinguish four groups of pathological gamblers based on their personality traits and associated psychopathology.

Disorganised and emotionally unstable, poorly adapted, suffering from alcohol problems, impulsive, or with a "globally adapted" personality. These are the features of the four diagnosed types of compulsive gamblers identified by researchers at the University Hospital of Bellvitge (IDIBELL) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). According to the scientific team, only one of these four shows signs of a significant pathology.

According to the researchers, who studied 1,171 people, types I and II are pathological gamblers who exhibit problems in controlling their responses, "but only type II shows signs of a significant concurrent psychopathology", with high levels of impulsiveness and sensation-seeking....MORE