Behavioral assessment of impulsivity in pathological gamblers with and without substance use disorder histories versus healthy controls

“The Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT; Brown et al., 2002; Gronwall, 1977) is a mental arithmetic task presented in three levels of increasing duration and difficulty and was used as a distress tolerance task.”

“There are several different ways of operationalizing impulsivity (Evenden, 1999).”

“Further, some PGs appear to use gambling as a way to escape from negative emotional experiences (Blaszczynski and Nower, 2002; Ledgerwood and Petry, 2006a).”

“Further, many of the studies cited above did not control for substance use disorders, despite recent prelavence data that suggests up to 73% of pathological gamblers have a lifetime comorbid alcohol use disorder and up to 38% have a lifetime substance use disorder (Petry et al., 2005).”

“…it intuitively makes sense to study distress tolerance as a potential correlate of impulsivity in PGs. Recent research has examined the basis of the relationship between the experience of intense negative emotional experience and impulsive decision-making (see Cyders and Smith, 2008for a review).”

“Most studies of gambling have used paper and pencil measures, including Barratt’s impulsivity scales (Barratt, 1985; Patton et al., 1995) and Eysenck’s scale (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1978).”

“The Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (PASAT; Brown et al., 2002; Gronwall, 1977) is a mental arithmetic task presented in three levels of increasing duration and difficulty and was used as a distress tolerance task.”

“PGs discounted future, larger rewards in favor of immediate, smaller ones at a rate significantly higher than comparable control participants, a finding that is similar to past studies (Alessi and Petry, 2003; Petry, 2001a; Petry, 2001b; Petry and Casarella, 1999).”

“PGs discounted future, larger rewards in favor of immediate, smaller ones at a rate significantly higher than comparable control participants, a finding that is similar to past studies (Alessi and Petry, 2003; Petry, 2001a; Petry, 2001b; Petry and Casarella, 1999).”

“We found, however, that PGs did not have significantly more difficulty inhibiting responses when faced with a stop signal than control participants, a finding that is contrary to some prior published studies that found poorer response inhibition in PGs (Fuentes et al., 2006; Goudriaan et al., 2006).”

“PGs discounted future, larger rewards in favor of immediate, smaller ones at a rate significantly higher than comparable control participants, a finding that is similar to past studies (Alessi and Petry, 2003; Petry, 2001a; Petry, 2001b; Petry and Casarella, 1999).”

“However, some recent studies have reported a significant relationship between impulsivity and unsuccessful treatment outcomes (Moeller et al., 2001; Patkar et al., 2004), necessitating additional study on this issue.”

“PGs discounted future, larger rewards in favor of immediate, smaller ones at a rate significantly higher than comparable control participants, a finding that is similar to past studies (Alessi and Petry, 2003; Petry, 2001a; Petry, 2001b; Petry and Casarella, 1999).”

“…by persistent gambling behavior that significantly disrupts social, family and vocational pursuits (American Psychiatric Association, 1994), and is frequently associated with increased financial, legal and psychological problems (Ladd and Petry, 2002; Potenza et al., 2001; Shaffer et al., 2002).”

“rewards is a measure of greater impulsivity (Green et al., 1994).”

“, 1998) but not all (Petry, 2001b; Steel and Blaszczynski, 1998) previous studies.”

“Co-occurring psychopathology may also be associated with greater impulsivity, further exacerbating such problems (Crean et al., 2000).”

“…used to explore the question of impulsivity in a number of populations, and several studies have found significant relationships between response inhibition tasks and scores on paper and pencil measures of impulsivity (Finn et al., 1999; Finn et al., 2002; Horn et al., 2003; Marsh et al., 2002).”

“The NODS is based on DSM-IV criteria for PG, and is a valid assessment of lifetime and current PG (Gerstein et al., 1999; Hodgins, 2004).”

“The single key impulsivity paradigm (SKIP) is another behavioral-choice measure in which participants make a response to obtain money (Dougherty, 2003; Dougherty et al., 2003; Mathias et al., 2002; Swann et al., 2002).”

“Our findings have implications for the treatment for PG. Higher impulsivity in PGs may place treatment-seeking gamblers at high risk for relapse (Ledgerwood and Petry, 2006b), and treatment failure (Leblond et al., 2003).”

“…used to explore the question of impulsivity in a number of populations, and several studies have found significant relationships between response inhibition tasks and scores on paper and pencil measures of impulsivity (Finn et al., 1999; Finn et al., 2002; Horn et al., 2003; Marsh et al., 2002).”

“…by persistent gambling behavior that significantly disrupts social, family and vocational pursuits (American Psychiatric Association, 1994), and is frequently associated with increased financial, legal and psychological problems (Ladd and Petry, 2002; Potenza et al., 2001; Shaffer et al., 2002).”

“As many as 20% of PGs have a history of attention deficit disorder (ADD; Specker et al., 1995), and rates of ADD in PGs with co-occurring cocaine dependence are as high as 50% (Steinberg et al., 1992), suggesting that PG may be associated with significant attention difficulties.”

“High impulsivity is associated with greater risk taking activities (e.g., suicide attempt, sexual risk taking) among PGs (Martins et al., 2004).”

“However, some recent studies have reported a significant relationship between impulsivity and unsuccessful treatment outcomes (Moeller et al., 2001; Patkar et al., 2004), necessitating additional study on this issue.”

“Additionally, with regard to sensation seeking, it is also notable that other studies have also failed to find PGs score higher than controls (e.g., Blanco et al., 1996; Powell et al., 1999), suggesting that sensation seeking may be distinguishable from impulsivity and is not necessarily…”

“Several studies have found correlations between PG and these self-report measures (e.g., Blaszczynski and Steel, 1998; Steel and Blaszczynski, 1998; Petry, 2001a; Vitaro et al., 1998).”

“…with regard to sensation seeking, it is also notable that other studies have also failed to find PGs score higher than controls (e.g., Blanco et al., 1996; Powell et al., 1999), suggesting that sensation seeking may be distinguishable from impulsivity and is not necessarily characteristic of PGs.”

“Several studies have found correlations between PG and these self-report measures (e.g., Blaszczynski and Steel, 1998; Steel and Blaszczynski, 1998; Petry, 2001a; Vitaro et al., 1998).”

“We found, however, that PGs did not have significantly more difficulty inhibiting responses when faced with a stop signal than control participants, a finding that is contrary to some prior published studies that found poorer response inhibition in PGs (Fuentes et al., 2006; Goudriaan et al., 2006).”

“Higher impulsivity in PGs may place treatment-seeking gamblers at high risk for relapse (Ledgerwood and Petry, 2006b), and treatment failure (Leblond et al., 2003).”

“Our findings have implications for the treatment for PG. Higher impulsivity in PGs may place treatment-seeking gamblers at high risk for relapse (Ledgerwood and Petry, 2006b), and treatment failure (Leblond et al., 2003).”

“, 50 through 350 msec) as measures of response inhibition (Marsh et al., 2002).”

“The validity and reliability of the SSS-V are acceptable and have been demonstrated in previous studies (Roberti et al., 2003; Zuckerman, 1979; Zuckerman, 1994).”

“Lower numbers of hits, shorter response latencies, and higher numbers of misses, and commission errors are indicative of greater impulsivity (Dougherty et al., 2000).”

“Sensation seeking is a trait characterized by a need for novel, varied and complex experiences that are often associated with significant risk taking (Langewisch and Frisch, 1998; Zuckerman, 1979).”

“As many as 20% of PGs have a history of attention deficit disorder (ADD; Specker et al., 1995), and rates of ADD in PGs with co-occurring cocaine dependence are as high as 50% (Steinberg et al., 1992), suggesting that PG may be associated with significant attention difficulties.”

“Longest time duration (in seconds) between two responses assesses impulsivity on this task (Dougherty, 2003; Mathias et al., 2002).”

“…choice task $1,000 k MacKillop et al. 2006 Gambling Potential pathological gamblers vs. controls No 37 vs. 34 Multi-item choice task $1,000 k Ledgerwood et al. 2009 Gambling Pathological gamblers vs. controls Yes 30 vs. 41 Multi-item choice task $1,000 AUC Dixon et al. 2003 Gambling…”

“Ledgerwood et al. (2009) replicated Petry’s (2001b) observed difference between the discounting rates of pathological gamblers and controls, but Ledgerwood et al. (2009) did not observe a difference between gamblers with and without a substance abuse disorder.”

“Behavioral choice theory has primarily focused on problems of drug abuse [1,2] and gambling [3,4] but has beenextended to other healthbehaviors, suchaseating, physical activity and obesity [5,6].”