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Gambling, disordered gambling and their association with major depression and substance use: a web-based cohort and twin-sibling study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2011

C. Blanco ,
J. Myers  and
K. S. Kendler
C. Blanco
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute/Columbia University, NY, USA
J. Myers
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, USA
K. S. Kendler*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, USA Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond, VA, USA
*
*Address for correspondence: K. S. Kendler, M.D., Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics of VCU, Box 980126, Richmond, VA 23298-0126, USA. (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Background

Relatively little is known about the environmental and genetic contributions to gambling frequency and disordered gambling (DG), the full continuum of gambling-related problems that includes pathological gambling (PG).

Method

A web-based sample (n=43 799 including both members of 609 twin and 303 sibling pairs) completed assessments of number of lifetime gambling episodes, DSM-IV criteria for PG, alcohol, nicotine and caffeine intake, and nicotine dependence (ND) and DSM-III-R criteria for lifetime major depression (MD). Twin modeling was performed using Mx.

Results

In the entire cohort, symptoms of DG indexed a single dimension of liability. Symptoms of DG were weakly related to caffeine intake and moderately related to MD, consumption of cigarettes and alcohol, and ND. In twin and sibling pairs, familial resemblance for number of times gambled resulted from both familial–environmental (c2=42%) and genetic factors (a2=32%). For symptoms of DG, resemblance resulted solely from genetic factors (a2=83%). Bivariate analyses indicated a low genetic correlation between symptoms of DG and MD (ra=+0.14) whereas genetic correlations with DG symptoms were substantially higher with use of alcohol, caffeine and nicotine, and ND (ranging from +0.29 to +0.80). The results were invariant across genders.

Conclusions

Whereas gambling participation is determined by shared environmental and genetic factors, DG constitutes a single latent dimension that is largely genetically determined and more closely related to externalizing than internalizing behaviors. Because these findings are invariant across genders, they suggest that the etiological factors of DG are likely to be similar in men and women.

Keywords

Alcoholdepressionnicotinepathological gamblingtwin
Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , March 2012 , pp. 497 - 508
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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