A recent study from the University of Iowa found that relatives of a pathological gambler had an 11% chance of being pathological gamblers themselves. When researchers looked at the relatives of the control group of nongamblers, they found those relatives had just a 1% chance of being pathological gamblers.
The researchers called the study the largest of its kind to date. They examined 95 pathological gamblers and 91 nongamblers as well as 1,075 first-degree relatives (parents, children, and siblings) to find their results. When the researchers expanded the search from pathological gambling (serious enough to become a clinical issue) to problem gambling, the pathological gamblers’ relatives had a 16% chance of being problem gamblers themselves, compared to 3% for the nongamblers’ relatives.
They also examined the potential links to other conditions. In the relatives of the pathological gamblers, independent of whether the relatives were pathological gamblers themselves, there were increased incidences of antisocial personality, social anxiety disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
