School of Psychological, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Coventry University, Coventry, UK.
Department of Psychology, Aegean College, Athens, Greece.
J Gambl Stud. 2018 Dec;34(4):1327-1340. doi: 10.1007/s10899-018-9758-y.
Pathological gambling is characterized by a persisting maladaptive and recurrent behavior with severe social and psychological consequences. There is evidence of strong comorbidity with psychiatric manifestations as well as cognitive mainly involving executive functions. This study aimed to investigate impairment in executive functions and working memory, and personality traits in a sample of Greek gamblers. Twenty-four men involved in various gambling activities were recruited from ecological settings as probable pathological gamblers. They were assessed with a comprehensive neuropsychological battery involving several executive tasks, the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire, the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale, and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. An age- and education-level matched group of 21 men without history of habitual gambling served as controls. As a group, gamblers displayed significantly lower scores on indices of inhibition, decision making and self-reported emotional awareness, and scored higher on impulsivity/sensation seeking personality traits. Notably, gamblers scored similarly or significantly higher on measures of verbal and visuospatial working memory, cognitive flexibility, processing speed, verbal fluency, and sustained attention. Overall, we argue that gamblers do present with specific cognitive deficits, but there is no evidence for a generalized executive impairment, and further stress the importance of investigating cognitive, personality, and psychiatric aspects of gambling on the basis of an ecologically valid sampling.
病理性赌博的特征是一种持续的适应不良和反复出现的行为，具有严重的社会和心理后果。有证据表明，它与精神表现以及主要涉及执行功能的认知有很强的共病关系。本研究旨在调查希腊赌徒样本中的执行功能和工作记忆损伤以及人格特征。从生态环境中招募了 24 名参与各种赌博活动的男性，他们可能患有病理性赌博症，作为研究对象。他们接受了全面的神经心理学测试，包括几个执行任务、Zuckerman-Kuhlman 人格问卷、医院焦虑抑郁量表和情绪调节困难量表。一组年龄和教育程度匹配的 21 名没有习惯性赌博史的男性作为对照组。作为一个整体，赌徒在抑制、决策和自我报告的情绪意识方面的得分明显较低，而冲动/寻求刺激的人格特征得分较高。值得注意的是，赌徒在言语和视空间工作记忆、认知灵活性、处理速度、言语流畅性和持续注意力方面的得分相似或显著较高。总的来说，我们认为赌徒确实存在特定的认知缺陷，但没有证据表明存在普遍的执行功能障碍，并进一步强调基于生态有效的抽样调查赌博的认知、人格和精神方面的重要性。
