Telescoping phenomenon in pathological gambling: association with gender and comorbidities.

Brian L Odlaug, Marc E Mooney, Jon E Grant

Journal: The Journal of nervous and mental disease 2013;200(11):996-8

PMID: 23124186

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Abstract

The course of pathological gambling (PG) in women has been described as having a later age of initiation but a shorter time to problematic gambling ("telescoped"). This study examined evidence for telescoping and its relationship with comorbidities. Seventy-one treatment-seeking individuals with PG underwent a diagnostic interview to examine gambling behaviors, age at initiation of gambling, and time from initiation to meeting criteria for PG. The women had a higher mean age at gambling initiation compared with that of the men (mean [SD] age, 31.3 [13.0] years, compared with 22.4 [7.9] years; p = 0.0003) and a significantly shorter time from initiation of gambling to meeting the criteria for PG (8.33 [8.7] years compared with 11.97 [9.1] years; p = 0.0476) after controlling for demographic and clinical variables. This study presents evidence for a gender-specific course of PG unrelated to psychiatric comorbidities and suggests a need for greater clinical focus on the gender differences of gambling behavior.

Address: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Chicago, IL 60637, USA. [email protected]

DOI: 10.1097/NMD.0b013e3182718a4d

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MeSH Terms: Acetylcysteine, Adult, Age of Onset, Aged, Benzophenones, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Combined Modality Therapy, Comorbidity, Enzyme Inhibitors, Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists, Female, Free Radical Scavengers, Gambling, Humans, Interview, Psychological, Male, Memantine, Middle Aged, Nitrophenols, Risk Factors, Sex Factors, Tolcapone, Young Adult