IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/intgms/v8y2008i2p179-192.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Withdrawal and Tolerance Phenomenon in Problem Gambling

Author

Listed:
  • Alex Blaszczynski
  • Michael Walker
  • Louise Sharpe
  • Lia Nower

Abstract

The phenomenological similarities between gambling and substance dependence have led to the conceptualization of pathological gambling as an addictive disorder. Tolerance and withdrawal are important features of both disorders, suggesting commonalities in the neurobiological processes associated with neuroadaptational underpinnings. However, there are few empirical studies supporting the presence of tolerance and withdrawal reported in the gambling literature. Moreover, there are no studies comparing the equivalence of tolerance and withdrawal between gambling and alcohol dependence. This study compared tolerance and withdrawal features in samples of gamblers, alcoholics and gamblers who also met criteria for alcohol dependence. In contrast to the addiction model, findings indicate that, while a majority of participants increased bet size, the motivation to do so was not for excitement or to maintain arousal levels as indicated by the DSM-IV-TR but because of cognitive factors related to winning. Results supported the notion that pathological gamblers experienced similar levels of withdrawal symptom severity as alcohol-dependent participants. Further research is needed to evaluate whether those symptoms result from the inability to gamble or from the loss of an avoidant stress coping strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Alex Blaszczynski & Michael Walker & Louise Sharpe & Lia Nower, 2008. "Withdrawal and Tolerance Phenomenon in Problem Gambling," International Gambling Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 179-192, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:intgms:v:8:y:2008:i:2:p:179-192
    DOI: 10.1080/14459790802140007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14459790802140007
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/14459790802140007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Simone Rodda & Dan I. Lubman, 2012. "Preoccupation, gambling and the DSM-V," International Gambling Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 421-422, December.
    2. Benjamin Johnson & Tianze Sun & Daniel Stjepanović & Giang Vu & Gary C. K. Chan, 2023. "“Buy High, Sell Low”: A Qualitative Study of Cryptocurrency Traders Who Experience Harm," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(10), pages 1-16, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:intgms:v:8:y:2008:i:2:p:179-192. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RIGS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.