1. CROSS-COMORBILITY OF INTERNALIZED DISORDERS IN YOUNG ADULTS GAMBLERS
Franca Tani*, Alessio Gori**, Lucia Ponti**, Annalisa Ilari**
*Department of Health Sciences- Psychology and Psychiatry Unit- University of Florence (Italy)
**New Social Pathologies Research Unit, University of Florence (Italy)
Introduction
Pathological gambling is complex phenomenon which presents an high cross- and life-time comorbidities with a wide range of severe physical, emotional and social problems. Therefore, in order to improve positive outcomes of gamblers’ treatment, can be extremely relevant deepening specific clinical aspects of this comorbidity. The present study aimed to analyze the differences of anxiety and depressive symptoms between two groups of young adults gamblers.
Method
Participants
The overall sample consisted of 323 participants (mean age of 25.31; SD = 10.55) divided in two groups: I) a clinical group composed of 62 pathological gamblers (55 males and 7 females); and II) a control group composed of 261 social gamblers (76 males and 185 females).
Measures
Pathological gambling was assessed using the Italian version of the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS- Lesieur & Blume, 1987; Capitanucci & Carlevaro, 2004)
Anxiety was measuring using the Italian version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-Y Trait) developed by Spielberger (1983; Petrabissi & Santinello, 1989)
Depressive symptoms was measure using the Italian version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies National Institute of Mental Health (CES-D; Radloff, ; Fava, 1983)
Procedure
Participants were recruited at the gambling rooms and at the University of Psychology in Florence. Inclusion criteria for the pathological gamblers group and social gamblers group were the participants SOGS scores, using the 3 and 5 score as cut-off points. Specifically, the pathological gamblers group is composed of gamblers whose SOGS score was higher than 5, and control group included gamblers whose SOGS score was below 3.
Results
Two univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted to assess between group differences as to anxious and depressive symtoms
Results of ANOVAs showed significant differences between pathological and social gamblers in both dimensions of considered internalized disorders. Specifically, the pathological gamblers present higher levels of anxiety (47.79 vs , F(1,321) =17.90; p<.001) and depression (21.84 vs , F(1,321) =8.23; p<.01) than social gamblers do.
Discussion and Conclusions
Our results showed that pathological gamblers present higher levels of internalizing disorders than social gamblers, confirming an high prevalence of anxiety and depressive disorders cross-comorbidity in pathological gambling.
These findings are useful in the development of specific therapeutic implications for psychological treatments of pathological gambling.