• Mood Disorder Compulsive Gambling Disorder
• Mood Disorder Compulsive Gambling Behavior
• Mood Disorder Compulsive Gambling Symptoms
• Mood Disorder Compulsive Gambling Disorders

Compulsive gambling, known formally as pathological gambling, is a psychiatric disorder that involves a persistent fixation with gambling that continues in the face of seriously negative personal or social consequences. Along with a varied range of other conditions that feature impulsive behavior, it’s officially categorized as an “impulse disorder not otherwise specified.” Current guidelines group all compulsive gamblers together. However, according to the results of a study published in 2010 in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, compulsive gamblers actually belong to one of four different sub-types, two of which include features of certain personality-based mental illnesses called personality disorders.

Pathological Gambling Disorder, like so many other DSM-IV psychiatric disorders, probably represents heterogeneous disorders with a variety of etiological roots. The primary goal of the present paper is to limit the study to the subsets in which there is an overlap between pathological gambling and mood disorder. Pathological gambling, as the part of obsessive-compulsive disorder, requires the higher doses of antidepressants as it usually required for depressive disorders. In cases where participants do not have or have minimal symptoms of anxiety or depression, antidepressants still have those effect.

Compulsive Gambling Basics

The American Psychiatric Association, a professional organization responsible for creating the standard definitions for mental illness in the United States, recognizes 10 distinct symptoms in compulsive or pathological gamblers. These symptoms include a fixation on gambling that persists outside of actual gambling situations, a repeated inability to control one’s gambling behaviors, increased moodiness when not involved in gambling, repeated lying about gambling activities, increased excitement when betting higher and higher amounts of money, a recurring need for help to recover from gambling debts, a rapid return to gambling after a big loss, use of gambling as a “mood lifter,” commission of crimes to sustain gambling activities and levels of gambling involvement that permanently damage one’s social or personal standing. In order to receive a diagnosis, any given individual must have a minimum of five of these symptoms.

As is true with a number of other non-substance-based impulsive or compulsive behaviors, mental health professionals increasingly view pathological gambling through the lens of mental/biological addiction. In the initial stages of his or her involvement, a given individual may feel entirely free to choose how he or she behaves in response to the gambling urge. However, over time, that sense of freedom and voluntary action starts to fade and gets replaced by an involuntary need for gambling that gradually supersedes all other relevant priorities. Specific problems that can increase the probability of a shift from voluntary to pathological gambling behaviors include substance addiction and the presence of antisocial personality disorder or various forms of schizophrenia.

1. People with compulsive gambling have a hard time resisting or controlling the impulse to gamble. The brain is reacting to this impulse in the same manner it reacts to a person addicted to alcohol or drugs. Although it shares features of obsessive compulsive disorder, compulsive gambling is likely a different condition.
2. Compulsive and habitual gambling can destroy a person's life. He likely suffers personal problems and financial ruin, with problem gambling sometimes leading to a life of crime.

Types of Compulsive Gamblers

Since the introduction of pathological gambling as a form of defined mental illness, a key feature of diagnosing the condition has been the identification of an inability to control the gambling impulse. However, according to the authors of the study published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, this criterion does not accurately reflect the mental status of all people who otherwise meet the criteria for a pathological gambling diagnosis. Instead, after examining the psychological profiles of more than 1,100 compulsive gamblers, they concluded that people affected by the disorder actually fall into one of four separate personality-based sub-types.

According to the study authors’ classifications, people with Type 1 pathological gambling have personality traits that resemble the traits in people who have a condition called schizotypal personality disorder. People with this disorder are well oriented toward reality, but exhibit dysfunctional degrees of emotional disorganization, emotional instability and impulsivity; typically these traits first arise early on in life. People with Type 2 pathological gambling have personality traits associated with another condition called schizoid personality disorder. This condition closely resembles schizotypal personality disorder; however, unlike schizotypal individuals, schizoid individuals are not bothered by any personal or social disruptions caused by their illness.

People with Type 3 pathological gambling (as defined by the scheme presented in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry) gamble out of an impulsive desire/need for a “rush” of sensation; typically, they don’t have symptoms of any particular sort of personality disorder. People with Type 4 pathological gambling also have no traits that correspond with a specific personality disorder; instead, they have what’s known as a “globally adaptive” personality, which allows them to change their behaviors according to their local surroundings.

Mood Disorder Compulsive Gambling Disorder

Significance

The authors of the study in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry believe that only people with Type 2 pathological gambling have a combination of personality disorder-related traits and impulsive or uncontrolled behavior that make them truly “pathological” (that is to say, extremely or excessively abnormal in some way). According to their findings, other people classified as pathological gamblers have definite, identifiable problems, but don’t rise to the same level of mental illness. Despite the results of this study, guidelines for compulsive or pathological gambling remain unchanged in 2013 and do not reflect the sort of symptom breakdown undertaken by the study’s authors.

Gambling while on vacation or buying the occasional lottery ticket poses little to no threat to a person’s overall quality of life. When done on a recreational basis, gambling can be a fun activity. Compulsive gambling, however, takes gambling activities to a whole other level.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, three percent of Americans will experience job loss, broken families, debt and legal problems as result of compulsive gambling behaviors. In effect, the word “compulsive” best depicts the disorder aspect of compulsive gambling.

Mood Disorder Compulsive Gambling Behavior

More oftentimes than not, compulsive behaviors result from some form of obsession that overwhelms a person’s ability to control or manage the behavior. These characteristics most resemble addiction-type behaviors without the drug or alcohol component. Not unlike drug/alcohol addictions, compulsive gambling behaviors trigger physiological changes and behavioral changes, both of which have a noticeable impact on a person’s everyday quality of life.

Process-Based Addictions

Addiction describes a disorder characterized by a loss of control, so compulsive behavior becomes a key component within any form of addiction. Process-based addictions involve activities where a person loses control over his or her ability to walk away from further engagement. Compulsive gambling behaviors fall within the process-based addiction category.

Much like addictions to alcohol and drugs, a person may start out gambling on an infrequent basis as a form of recreation. For people with addiction tendencies, the fun or thrill of engaging in the activity becomes a force all its own, similar to how a drug “high” drives addicts to keep using.

Ultimately, someone with a compulsive gambling (addiction) disorder will exhibit the following characteristics –

• Spending increasing amounts of time gambling
• Disregard for negative consequences brought on by gambling behavior
• An inability to limit or stop gambling behavior
• Thinking about and anticipating the next time he or she gambles
• An emotional tie with the activity

Gambling Effects in the Brain

Someone who cannot control their gambling may be said to have a gambling disorder.

Mood Disorder Compulsive Gambling Symptoms

For people addicted to gambling, the act of gambling has become an obsession. Obsessions, in general, trigger certain emotional responses, which play a central role in perpetuating this condition.

Mood Disorder Compulsive Gambling Disorders

Likewise, compulsive gamblers experience a “rush” or “high” that produces chemical changes in the brain, much like a drug or alcohol “high.” According to Scientific American, these chemical changes affect the same neurotransmitter chemicals that regulate emotions, learning, cognitive functions and motivation.

Over time, these chemical changes start to “rewire” how the brain works and eventually alter a person’s motivations, thoughts and behaviors. In effect, the more a person engages in gambling the more out of balance brain chemical processes become.

Symptoms of Compulsive Gambling

Like drug and alcohol abuse disorders, a gambling disorder can wreak havoc in most every area of a person’s life. Symptoms of compulsive gambling disorder include –

• Decline in personal appearance and/or hygiene
• Frequent mood swings
• Sleep problems
• Risk-taking
• Financial difficulties
• Changes in appetite
• Legal problems
• Relationship conflicts
• Problems at work

Not surprisingly, these same symptoms can result from drug/alcohol addictions. As with any form of addiction, a person’s gambling behaviors will only get worse unless he or she gets needed treatment help.