Heterogeneity in Disordered Gambling: Decision-Making and Impulsivity in Gamblers Grouped by Preferred Form.

Background: Previous research has indicated that disordered gamblers display deficits in impulsivity and risky decision-making, compared to healthy control groups. However, disordered gamblers are not a homogenous group, and differences in performance on neurocognitive tasks may be related to the form of gambling in which an individual chooses to engage. The present study used neurocognitive tasks and questionnaire measures to ascertain group differences in gamblers grouped by preferred form of gambling. Method: Treatment-seeking pathological gamblers from the National Problem Gambling Clinic, London (n = 101), completed a neurocognitive assessment comprising the Cambridge gamble task (CGT), the stop-signal task (SST), a probabilistic reversal learning task (PRL), and the Kirby Monetary Choice Questionnaire, as well as questionnaire measures of gambling severity, impulsivity, depression, and anxiety. Analyses compared gamblers who favored fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) (the modal form) to gamblers who preferred other forms of gambling (non-FOBT). Results: The FOBT group showed impaired decision-making under risk on the CGT compared to the non-FOBT group, choosing the likely option less on more uncertain decisions. The FOBT group made fewer perseverative errors on the PRL task, had lower depression and anxiety scores, and were less likely to have a family history of problem gambling than the non-FOBT group. Discussion: Decision-making and cognitive flexibility differences between gamblers grouped by gambling type supports preferred form as an important source of heterogeneity in gambling disorder. Decision-making strategies and risk attitudes should be considered when approaching cognition-focused treatment strategies, allowing interventions to be targeted at specific cognitive deficits.

Striatal dopamine D2/D3 receptor binding in pathological gambling is correlated with mood-related impulsivity.

Pathological gambling (PG) is a behavioural addiction associated with elevated impulsivity and suspected dopamine dysregulation. Reduced striatal dopamine D(2)/D(3) receptor availability has been reported in drug addiction, and may constitute a premorbid vulnerability marker for addictive disorders. The aim of the present study was to assess striatal dopamine D(2)/D(3) receptor availability in PG, and its association with trait impulsivity. Males with PG (n=9) and male healthy controls (n=9) underwent [11C]-raclopride positron emission tomography imaging and completed the UPPS-P impulsivity scale. There was no significant difference between groups in striatal dopamine D(2)/D(3) receptor availability, in contrast to previous reports in drug addiction. However, mood-related impulsivity ('Urgency') was negatively correlated with [11C]-raclopride binding potentials in the PG group. The absence of a group difference in striatal dopamine binding implies a distinction between behavioural addictions and drug addictions. Nevertheless, our data indicate heterogeneity in dopamine receptor availability in disordered gambling, such that individuals with high mood-related impulsivity may show differential benefits from dopamine-based medications.

Decision making, impulsivity, and addictions: do Parkinson's disease patients jump to conclusions?

Links between impulsive-compulsive behaviors (ICBs) in treated Parkinson's disease (PD), behavioral addictions, and substance abuse have been postulated, but no direct comparisons have been carried out so far. We directly compared patients with PD with and without ICBs with illicit drug abusers, pathological gamblers, and age-matched healthy controls using the beads task, a test of reflection impulsivity, and a working memory task. We found that all patients with PD made more impulsive and irrational choices than the control group. PD patients who had an ICB showed similar behavior to illicit substance abusers, whereas patients without ICBs more closely resembled pathological gamblers. In contrast, we found no difference in working memory performance within the PD groups. However, PD patients without ICBs remembered distractors significantly less than all other patients during working memory tests. We were able to correctly classify 96% of the PD patients with respect to whether or not they had an ICB by analyzing three trials of the 80/20 loss condition of the beads task with a negative prediction value of 92.3%, and we propose that this task may prove to be a powerful screening tool to detect an ICB in PD. Our results also suggest that intact cortical processing and less distractibility in PD patients without ICBs may protect them from developing behavioral addictions.

Monetary incentives for schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: There is evidence suggesting that people with serious mental illness are less responsive to everyday social rewards such as praise. Motivation and performance in social situations can be poor. Rewarding of tasks with money improves motivation to complete the tasks in everyday life. Careful use of targeted monetary rewards could also help people with troublesome symptoms of schizophrenia. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effect of monetary incentive/rewards for people with schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like illness. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group's Register (June 2008). SELECTION CRITERIA: All relevant randomised controlled trials comparing monetary rewards with standard care or no monetary rewards. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Working independently, we selected studies for quality assessment and extracted relevant data. We analysed on an intention-to-treat basis. Where possible and appropriate we calculated the Relative Risk (RR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI). For continuous data we calculated weighted mean differences (MD) and their 95% confidence intervals. MAIN RESULTS: Five trials are excluded that investigate one type of monetary reward over another and may be included in a future update. We did include one study, carried out over 40 years ago, randomising a total of 25 very chronically ill people who had been in hospital an average of 20 years. The targeted task that was being encouraged was assembly of dolls. People allocated to the payment group produced less dolls than those not paid at all although this difference did not reach conventional levels of statistical significance (MD -0.80 CI -1.44 to -0.16). AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Monetary rewards have been the topic for sporadic evaluative research for decades and this review shows that randomised studies are possible. We suggest a design for a future informative trial.