1. Impulsivity in Pathological Gambling Blaszczynski et al. (1997)Blaszczynski et al. (1997) conducted a study to investigate the role of impulsivity and other personality factors in pathological gamblers. In the model by Blaszczynski & Nower (2002), impulsivity is the principal component of Pathway 3 to pathological gambling.Blaszczynski & Nower (2002) Pathological gambling is classified as an Impulse Control Disorder in the DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association) diagnostic taxonomy.gamblingDSM-IV Contributor© POSbase 2005

2. Impulsivity in Pathological Gambling Participants were 115 pathological gamblers seeking treatment, including 80 inpatients and 35 Gamblers Anonymous attenders (101 males and 14 females). The inpatients met the DSM-III (APA, 1980) diagnostic criteria for pathological gambling. © POSbase 2005

3. Impulsivity in Pathological Gambling The participants completed a battery of Psychological Measures:  DSM-III checklist for Antisocial Personality Disorder  Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) Beck Depression Inventory  Eysenck Impulsivity Scale (EIS), including subscales for Impulsiveness, Risk-taking, Non-planning, and Liveliness  California Psychological Inventory Socialization Subscale CPI So)  Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), including the three dimensions Extroversion, Neuroticism and Psychoticism  Symptom Checklist 90 – Revised (SCL90-R)  Boredom Proneness (BP) © POSbase 2005

4. Impulsivity in Pathological Gambling In addition, the following demographic & psychosocial factors were measured:  Age  Years gambling  Gambling-related debt  Employment stability  Participation in criminal activity  Substance abuse  Psychometric indices of distress © POSbase 2005

5. Impulsivity in Pathological Gambling The gamblers’ scores on the psychological measures were compared to scores from normative populations. © POSbase 2005 The gamblers were significantly higher on:  Impulsiveness (EIS)  Non-planning (EIS)  Neuroticism (EPQ)  Psychoticism (EPQ)  Depression (mildly to moderately depressed) (BDI)  SCL90-R Positive Symptom Total  Boredom proneness (BP)

6. Impulsivity in Pathological Gambling Impulsivity scores from the Eysenck Impulsivity Scale were significantly correlated with:  Socialization (CPI So)r = -.59  Boredom proneness (BP)r =.57  Neuroticism (EPQ)r =.52  Psychoticism (EPQ)r =.47  Depression (BDI)r =.42  SCL90-R Positive Symptom Totalr =.36 © POSbase 2005

7. Impulsivity in Pathological Gambling Gamblers with a history of suicidal ideation had significantly higher Impulsivity scores and significantly lower Socialization scores than gamblers with no suicidal ideation history. © POSbase 2005 In addition, gamblers who had committed gambling-related offences had significantly higher Psychoticism scores than those who had not committed such offences.

8. Impulsivity in Pathological Gambling From the results of the study we can conclude that gamblers are more impulsive than the general population and that an impulsivity-antisocial construct might apply to pathological gambling. This construct has since been tested by Steel and Blaszczynski (1998).Steel and Blaszczynski (1998) A study by Alessi and Petry (2003) has shown that impulsivity, as measured by a Delay Discounting Task, is related to severity of gambling.Alessi and Petry (2003)Delay Discounting © POSbase 2005