A new study shows that addicted gamblers tend to have more of physical health problems. Researchers found that among more than 43,000 Americans in a national survey, problem gamblers had a higher rate of liver disease, high blood pressure, high heart rate and angina.
While gambling addiction is most associated with drug abuse, anxiety and other mental health problems, the recent study is the first to show a connection to particular medical conditions.
Dr. Nancy M. Petry, the study's senior author, said that by using data from a federal survey on the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in the U.S., the researchers discovered that addicted gamblers were twice as likely to have angina and tachycardia (an excessively rapid heartbeat )and three times more likely to have liver disease.
Pathological gambling is a psychiatric disorder that is diagnosed when a person meets at least 5 out of 10 criteria, such as being preoccupied by gambling, needing to make larger and larger bets to get a thrill and lying to family and friends in order to cover up their gambling problem.
According to Petry, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, alcoholism, smoking and mental health disorders do not entirely explain the physical health problems of the study's focus group addicted gamblers, which suggests that something about gambling itself causes harm.
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