Table of Contents
- Overview
- Symptoms
- Treatment
- Prevention
Pathological gambling is being unable to resist impulses to gamble, which can lead to severe personal or social consequences.
Alternative Names
Gambling - compulsive; Compulsive gambling; Addictive gambling
Causes, incidence, and risk factors
Pathological gambling usually begins in early adolescence in men, and between ages 20 and 40 in women.
Pathological gambling often involves repetitive behaviors. People with this problem have a hard time resisting or controlling the impulse to gamble. Although it shares features of obsessive compulsive disorder, pathological gambling is likely a different condition.
In people who develop pathological gambling, occasional gambling leads to a gambling habit. Stressful situations can worsen gambling problems.
Review Date: 02/18/2010
Reviewed By: Linda Vorvick, MD, Medical Director, MEDEX Northwest Division of
Physician Assistant Studies, University of Washington School of
Medicine; and Michelle Benger Merrill, MD, Instructor in Clinical
Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical
Center, New York, NY. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA,
Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.
A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)
