by Antonino Costanzo, Giuseppe Maniaci, Carmen Concerto, Antonio Bruno, Ugo Pace, Alessia Passanisi, Caterina La Cascia, Laura Ferraro, Simone Russo Coco, Rossana Geraci, Alessandro Rodolico, Antonio Trovato, Antonino Petralia, Maria Salvina Signorelli, William Torregrossa, Fabrizio Turiaco, Maria Rosaria Anna Muscatello, Adriano Schimmenti

Abstract

Objective: Gambling-related problems frequently co-occur with psychiatric conditions. This cross-sectional study examined past-year gambling involvement and gambling-related problem severity in psychiatric outpatients and community participants, with particular attention to the role of emotion dysregulation and impulsivity.
Method: Participants were 815 adults, including 340 psychiatric outpatients and 475 community participants reporting no current psychiatric diagnosis. They completed measures of sociodemographic characteristics and past-year gambling. Gambling-related problem severity was assessed among participants who had gambled in the previous 12 months, whereas emotion dysregulation and impulsivity were assessed among psychiatric outpatients and among community participants who had gambled in the previous 12 months. Analyses examined whether psychiatric status was associated with past-year gambling involvement in the full sample and with gambling-related problem severity among participants who had gambled in the previous 12 months.
Results: Psychiatric outpatients were more likely than community participants to report past-year gambling. In the full sample, gambling involvement was associated with younger age, male gender, and psychiatric status. Among past-year gamblers, psychiatric status was not independently associated with gambling-related problem severity. Higher motor impulsivity was associated with greater severity in the overall gambler sample, whereas emotion dysregulation showed no consistent associations across analyses.
Conclusions: Gambling involvement and gambling-related problem severity showed partly distinct correlates: psychiatric status was associated with past-year gambling involvement but not independently with gambling-related problem severity among past-year gamblers. These findings support routine screening for gambling involvement and related harms in psychiatric outpatient services.

Key words: gambling, gambling-related problem severity, emotion dysregulation, impulsivity, psychiatric outpatients