Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA; Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, CO, USA.
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA; Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado Boulder, CO, USA.
Addict Behav. 2019 Jun;93:173-179. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2019.01.024. Epub 2019 Jan 21.
Human laboratory studies and twin research investigating relationships between alcohol use/pathology and gambling generally have yielded contradictory results, sometimes suggesting causal relationships and common genetic risk factors. 2860 individuals (mean age: 25.60, s.d = 3.21, 50.62% female) from separate clinical (n = 636) and community based (twin) samples (n = 2224) were used to assess associations between past year alcohol use and frequency of past year gambling behaviors (gambling frequency). After adjustment for demographic and psychiatric covariates, individual-level analyses detected that increased alcohol use was associated with more frequent gambling behaviors in twin and clinical samples. Co-twin control models were then used to test potential causal (direct) relationships between alcohol use and gambling frequency. Controlling for all covariates and shared genetic/environmental factors, we found increased alcohol use directly predicted more frequent gambling behaviors (consistent with causality). Our study also suggests shared genetic and/or environmental risk factors contribute to the association between increased alcohol use and frequent gambling behavior, a finding that may be more pronounced in males. The present study helps bridge the gap between twin research and human laboratory studies on gambling and alcohol use and corroborates findings across community and clinical samples. Overall, our findings support both common risk factors between alcohol use and gambling as well as a direct relationship between alcohol use and gambling frequency. Recognizing these dual processes could prove useful for gambling-related prevention/intervention programs.
人类实验室研究和双胞胎研究调查了饮酒/病理学与赌博之间的关系，这些研究通常得出了相互矛盾的结果，有时表明存在因果关系和共同的遗传风险因素。我们使用了来自独立临床（n=636）和社区双胞胎（n=2224）样本的 2860 名个体（平均年龄：25.60，标准差=3.21，50.62%为女性）来评估过去一年饮酒与过去一年赌博行为频率（赌博频率）之间的关联。在调整了人口统计学和精神科协变量后，个体水平分析发现，饮酒量增加与双胞胎和临床样本中更频繁的赌博行为有关。然后使用同卵双胞胎对照模型来测试饮酒和赌博频率之间潜在的因果（直接）关系。在控制所有协变量和共同遗传/环境因素的情况下，我们发现饮酒量增加直接预测了更频繁的赌博行为（与因果关系一致）。我们的研究还表明，共同的遗传和/或环境风险因素导致了饮酒量增加与频繁赌博行为之间的关联，这一发现在男性中可能更为明显。本研究有助于弥合赌博和饮酒的双胞胎研究与人类实验室研究之间的差距，并证实了社区和临床样本中的发现。总体而言，我们的研究结果支持饮酒和赌博之间存在共同风险因素以及饮酒与赌博频率之间存在直接关系。认识到这些双重过程可能对与赌博相关的预防/干预计划有用。
