Pathological Gambling in Treatment-seeking Substance Abusers

Accumulating evidence suggests that treatment-seeking substance abusers have high rates of gambling problems. However, relatively little is known about the relation between gambling problems and specific psychoactive substances apart from alcohol and methadone-treated opiate addicts. In this study of 580 individuals admitted to a residential addictions program, 10.5% were found to score in the pathological gambling range on the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) within the past year. The rate of pathological gambling was much higher for cannabis abusers (24%) than for alcohol (4%), cocaine (11.5%), and opiate abusers (4.8%). Men also reported higher rates of pathological gambling (11.9%) than women (7.5%). Individuals with a pathological gambling problem tended to report family histories of gambling problems as well.