Abstract
While it is well established that gambling disorder is associated with alcohol use disorder, less is known regarding whether sub-clinical alcohol consumption increases gambling behavior. This study examined the effects of varying levels of alcohol consumption on clinical and cognitive measures. The sample consisted of 572 non-treatment seeking gamblers age 18–29 who were divided into three groups: non-current drinkers, current drinkers who did not qualify for an alcohol use disorder, and those with an alcohol use disorder (AUD). All subjects were assessed on gambling pathology, severity and impulsivity using the Structured Clinical Interview for Gambling Disorder, Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale for Pathologic Gambling and the Barratt Impulsive Scale-11 and select cognitive tests. In all of the clinical measures, controlling for age, gender and education, the AUD group was significantly more likely than the non-current and current drinkers to be a pathologic gambler and to be impulsive, compulsive and depressed. On cognitive tasks, controlling for age, gender and education, the AUD group had significantly worse strategy use on a spatial working memory task than both other groups. This study suggests that the relationship between alcohol and gambling may only exist when pathology in both alcohol consumption and gambling behavior is present. Examining this relationship with alcohol consumption as a continuous variable would provide additional insight into the potential effects alcohol consumption has on gambling behavior.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aron, A. R. (2007). The neural basis of inhibition in cognitive control. Neuroscientist, 13(3), 214–228.
Barnes, G. M., Welte, J. W., Tidwell, M., & Hoffman, J. H. (2015). Gambling and substance use: Co-occurrence among adults in a recent general population study in the United States. International Gambling Studies, 15(1), 55–71.
Clark, L. (2010). Decision-making during gambling: An integration of cognitive and psychobiological approaches. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences, 365(1538), 319–330.
Cronce, J. M., & Corbin, W. R. (2010). Effects of alcohol and initial gambling outcomes on within-session gambling behavior. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 18(2), 145–157.
Del Boca, F. K., & Darkes, J. (2003). The validity of self-reports of alcohol consumption: State of the science and challenges for research. Addiction, 98(2), 1–12.
El-Guebaly, N., Patten, S., Currie, S., Williams, J., Beck, C., Maxwell, C., et al. (2006). Epidemiological associations between gambling behavior, substance use & mood and anxiety disorders. Journal of Gambling Studies, 22(3), 275–287.
Fillmore, M. T. (2007). Acute alcohol-induced impairment of cognitive functions: Past and present findings. International Journal on Disability and Human Development, 6, 115–125.
French, M. T., Maclean, J. C., & Ettner, S. L. (2008). Drinkers and bettors: Investigating the complementarity of alcohol consumption and problem gambling. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 96, 155–164.
Frisch, M. B. (2013). Evidence-based well-being/positive psychology assessment and intervention with quality of life therapy and coaching and the quality of life inventory (QOLI). Social Indicators Research, 114, 193–227.
Grant, J. E., Chamberlain, S. R., Schreiber, L. R., Odlaug, B. L., & Kim, S. W. (2011). Selective decision-making in at-risk gamblers. Psychiatry Research, 189(1), 115–120.
Grant, J. E., Potenza, M. N., Hollander, E., Cunningham-Williams, R., Nurminen, T., Smits, G., et al. (2006). Multicenter investigation of the opioid antagonist nalmefene in the treatment of pathological gambling. American Journal of Psychiatry, 163(2), 303–312.
Grant, J. E., Steinberg, M. A., Kim, S. W., Rounsaville, B. J., & Potenza, M. N. (2004). Preliminary validity reliability testing of a structured clinical interview for pathological gambling. Psychiatric Research, 128(1), 79–88.
Hamilton, M. (1959). The assessment of anxiety states by rating. The British Journal of Medical Psychology, 32, 50–55.
Hamilton, M. (1960). A rating scale for depression. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 23, 56–62.
Harvanko, A. M., Odlaug, B. L., Schreiber, L. R., & Grant, J. E. (2012). Cognitive task performance and frequency of alcohol usage in young adults. Journal of Addiction Medicine, 6(2), 106–111.
Hodgins, D. C., & Holub, A. (2015). Components of impulsivity in gambling disorder. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 13(6), 699–711.
Kubota, M., Nakazaki, S., Hirai, S., Saeki, N., Yamaura, A., & Kusaka, T. (2001). Alcohol consumption and frontal lobe shrinkage: study of 1432 non-alcoholic subjects. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 71, 104–106.
Leppink, E. W., Redden, S. A., & Grant, J. E. (2016). Impulsivity and gambling: A complex clinical association across three measures. The American Journal on Addictions, 25, 138–144.
Logan, G. D., & Cowan, W. B. (1984). On the ability to inhibit thought and action: A theory of an act of control. Psychological Review, 91, 295–327.
Lorains, F., Cowlishaw, S., & Thomas, S. (2011). Prevalence of comorbid disorders in problem and pathological gambling: Systematic review and meta-analysis of population surveys. Addiction, 106, 490–498.
Markham, F., Young, M., & Doran, B. (2012). The relationship between alcohol consumption and gambling behavior during a single visit to a gambling venue. Drug and Alcohol Review, 31, 770–777.
Moghaddam, J. F., Gihyun, Y., Camposa, M. D., & Fonga, T. W. (2015). Social and behavioral problems among five gambling severity groups. Psychiatry Research, 230, 143–149.
National Opinion Research Center. (1999). Gambling impact and behavior study. Chicago, IL: National Opinion Research Center.
Odlaug, B. L., Chamberlain, S. R., Kim, S. W., Schreiber, L. R., & Grant, J. E. (2011). A neurocognitive comparison of cognitive flexibility and response inhibition in gamblers with varying degrees of clinical severity. Psychological Medicine, 41(10), 2111–2119.
Owen, A. M., Downes, J. J., Sahakian, B. J., Polkey, C. E., & Robbins, T. W. (1990). Planning and spatial working memory following frontal lobe lesions in man. Neuropsychologia, 28, 1021–1034.
Owen, A. M., Roberts, A. C., Polkey, C. E., Sahakian, B. J., & Robbins, T. W. (1991). Extra-dimensional versus intra-dimensional set shifting performance following frontal lobe excisions, temporal lobe excisions or amygdalo-hippocampectomy in man. Neuropsychologia, 29(10), 993–1006.
Pallanti, S., DeCaria, S. M., Grant, J. E., Urpe, M., & Hollander, E. (2005). Reliability and validity of the pathological gambling adaptation of the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (PG-YBOCS). Journal of Gambling Studies, 21(4), 431–443.
Patton, J. H., Stanford, M. S., & Barratt, E. S. (1995). Factor structure of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 51, 768–774.
Petry, N., Stinson, F., & Grant, B. (2005). Comorbidity of DSM-IV pathological gambling and other psychiatric disorders: Results from the national epidemiologic survey on alcohol and related conditions. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 66(5), 564–574.
Pino-Gutierrez, A., Fernandez-Aranda, F., Granero, R., Tarrega, S., Valdeperez, A., Aguera, Z., et al. (2016). Impact of alcohol consumption on clinical aspects of gambling disorder. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing. doi:10.1111/inm.12221.
Rogers, R. D., Owen, A. M., Middleton, H. C., Williams, E. J., Pickard, J. D., Sahakian, B. J., et al. (1999). Choosing between small, likely rewards and large, unlikely rewards activates inferior and orbital prefrontal cortex. Journal of Neuroscience, 19, 9029–9038.
Shah, K. R., Eisen, S. A., Xian, H., & Potenza, M. N. (2005). Genetic studies of pathological gambling: A review of methodology and analyses of data from the Vietnam era twin registry. Journal of Gambling Studies, 21(2), 179–203.
Sheehan, D. V., Lecrubier, Y., Sheehan, K. H., Amorim, P., Janavs, J., Weiller, E., et al. (1998). The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.): The development and validation of a structured diagnostic psychiatric interview for DSM-IV and ICD-10. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 20(22–23), 34–57.
Shen, Y., Kairouz, S., Nadeau, L., & Robillard, C. (2015). Comparing problem gamblers with moderate-risk gamblers in a sample of university students. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 4(2), 53–59.
Slutske, W. S., Eisen, S., True, W. R., Lyons, M. J., Goldberg, J., & Tsuang, M. (2000). Common genetic vulnerability for pathological gambling and alcohol dependence in men. Archives of General Psychiatry, 57(7), 666–673.
Spoelder, M., Lesscher, H. M., Hesseling, P., Baars, A. M., Lozeman-van, T., Klooster, J. G., et al. (2015). Altered performance in a rat gambling task after acute and repeated alcohol exposure. Psychopharmacology (Berl), 232, 3649–3662.
Tamminga, C. A., & Nestler, E. J. (2006). Pathological gambling: Focusing on the addiction, not the activity. American Journal of Psychiatry, 163(2), 180–181.
van Holst, R. J., van den Brink, W., Veltman, D. J., & Goudriaan, A. E. (2010). Brain imaging studies in pathological gambling. Current Psychiatry Reports, 12(5), 418–425.
Welte, J. W., Barnes, G. M., Tidwell, M. C., & Joffman, J. H. (2008). The prevalence of problem gambling among U.S. adolescents and young adults: Results from a national survey. Journal of Gambling Studies, 24(2), 119–133.
Welte, J., Barnes, G., Wieczorek, W., Tidwell, M., & Parker, J. (2001). Alcohol and gambling pathology among U.S. adults: Prevalence, demographic patterns and comorbidity. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 62(5), 706–712.
White, H. R., Marmorstein, N. R., Crews, F. T., Bates, M. E., Mun, E. Y., & Loeber, R. (2011). Associations between heavy drinking and changes in impulsive behavior among adolescent males. Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research, 35(2), 295–303.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of interest
Mr. Michael Harries, Mr. Eric Leppink, and Ms. Sarah Redden report no conflicts of interest. Dr. Samuel Chamberlain consults for Cambridge Cognition and Shire. Dr. Jon Grant currently has research grants from the National Center for Responsible Gaming, Brainsway, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the TLC Foundation for Body Focused Repetitive Behaviors, Forest Takeda and Psyadon Pharmaceuticals. He receives yearly compensation from Springer Publishing for acting as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Gambling Studies and has received royalties from Oxford University Press, American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., Norton Press, and McGraw Hill.
Ethical Approval
Study procedures were carried out in accordance with the most recent version of the Declaration of Helsinki. The Institutional Review Board of the University of Chicago and the University of Minnesota approved the study and the informed consent procedures.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Harries, M.D., Redden, S.A., Leppink, E.W. et al. Sub-clinical Alcohol Consumption and Gambling Disorder. J Gambl Stud 33, 473–486 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-016-9649-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-016-9649-z