Psychiatria pre prax 4/2001

Pathological gambling

The aim of this paper is to review informations about the pathological gambling. Pathological gambling could become a problem for about 1–3 % of subjects of the population. The diagnosis should be made in the most appropriate way with the DSM IV, SOGS or MKN 10. The author in his review describes some cognitive distortions, connected with pathological gambling. Many facts are pointing out to its relationship rather to drug dependency than to the obsessive-compulsive disorder, model of which is often quoted as the most relevant. Disturbances of dopaminergic and serotonergic systems were observed in pathological gamblers. The present attitudes to the treatment of pathological gambling is not unified, nevertheless the most general opinion prefers the concept of multimodal therapy with combinations of different techniques and with use of organisations established for the help for the pathological gamblers. This approach seems to be the most effective and promising.

Keywords: pathological gambling, gambler, neurobiology, therapy.