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Health and Psychosocial Correlates of Disordered Gambling in Older Adults

Received January 27, 2004; revised April 19, June 9, 2004; accepted June 11, 2004. From the Dept. of Psychiatry, Univ. of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT (RHP,CAM,NMP), the Dept. of Psychology, Colby College, Waterville, ME (GTL), and the Center on Aging, Univ. of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT (GJK). Send correspondence and reprint requests to Nancy M. Petry, Ph.D., Dept. of Psychiatry, Univ. of Connecticut Health Center, 263 Farmington Ave., Farmington, CT 06030-3944. e-mail: petry{at}psychiatry.uchc.edu
© 2005 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry

Objective: A number of regional prevalence studies suggest that disordered gambling is a clinically significant problem among older adults. However, little research has evaluated whether older adults with a gambling disorder experience increased health, psychiatric, substance use, and social problems as compared with older adults without a gambling disorder. Methods: A group of 48 older-adult disordered gamblers and 48 older adult non/infrequent gamblers, matched by age, sex, race, and recruitment site, completed the Addiction Severity Index (ASI), Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), and Short Form–36 Health Survey (SF–36). Multivariate general-linear models evaluated between-group differences on these indices. Results: Compared with non/infrequent gamblers, disordered gamblers reported increased severity of medical, family/social, psychiatric, and alcohol problems on the ASI. They also scored higher on depression, anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism subscales of the BSI, and lower on vitality, physical functioning, role-physical, general health, and social functioning subscales of the SF–36. Conclusions: These results suggest that older adults with a gambling disorder experience increased severity of health and psychosocial problems, compared with older adult non/infrequent gamblers matched by age, sex, race, and recruitment site.

Key Words: Impulse Control Disorders • Pathological Gambling • Tests/Interviews

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