title: Recent research on the comorbidity of alcoholism and pathological gambling.
abstract: This article summarizes a symposium held at the 2002 Annual Meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism in San Francisco, CA, and was prepared on behalf of the symposium participants by the symposium co-organizers/co-chairs. Prior research with both clinical and nonclinical populations indicates a high comorbidity between alcohol-use disorders and pathological gambling. This symposium involved a set of papers in which exciting new research on this form of comorbidity was presented. The studies spanned populations of problem-gambling helpline callers, problem gamblers attempting to recover, and community-recruited gambler research volunteers. The studies used methodologies ranging from questionnaire and interview to laboratory-based paradigms (i.e., cognitive and alcohol challenge). Study designs ranged from cross-sectional to longitudinal and from correlation to experiment. The symposium highlighted novel approaches that researchers are using to enhance understanding of functional relations that may underlie this common comorbidity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology (SHS), Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. sherry.stewart@dal.ca
authors.forename: Sherry H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.forename: Matt G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Kushner
mesh_terms: D000437:Alcoholism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D015897:Comorbidity; D007174:Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D015340:Epidemiologic Research Design; D005715:Gambling / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans