Pathological gambling refers to the uncontrollable impulse to gamble, irrespective of the interference the behaviour has on the individual's life. It often results in disrupted relationships, financial problems, criminal behaviour and yet the individual is unable to refrain.

Our aim is to evaluate the relationship among impulsivity traits, personality assessment and psychiatric comorbidity in a sample of pathological gamblers.

78 pathological gamblers were evaluated with the following instruments: MINI to evaluate psychiatric comorbidity; TCI to evaluate personality traits, and BIS-11 to evaluate impulsivity. Pathological gambling was assessed with DSM-IV-TR criteria.

In our sample we found an average score of BIS-11 (66,9) slightly higher than the score of the general population (63,8). The scores of TCI, compared with the mean scores of the general population, differ significantly with regard to NS, RD, C, ST. As to MINI, it reveals a significant prevalence of Major Depressive Episode, Dysthymia, GAD, and risk of suicide. We identified two groups at high and low impulsivity and we conducted an analysis in relation to personality traits measured by TCI and incidence of psychiatric comorbidity measured by the MINI. The group with high impulsivity was associated with significantly higher scores of NS and HA, and lower RD and SD. Also in this group there was a higher incidence of Major Depressive Episode and GAD.

The analysis allows to identify the impulsive trait as a discriminating factor of two different types of players in relation to personality characteristics and psychiatric comorbidity.