title: The latest achievements in the pharmacotherapy of gambling disorder.
abstract: Gambling disorder (GD) is becoming increasingly prevalent both among adults and adolescents. Unfortunately, this disorder is largely underestimated, while it can still lead to serious social and personal consequences, including criminal behavior or suicide attempts. In the past, the only means of treating gambling were psychobehavioral therapies. Nowadays, this disorder could also respond to many drugs from different classes such as opioid antagonists, serotonin selective reuptake inhibitors, mood stabilizers, atypical antipsychotics or glutamatergic agents. This review presents current pharmacological strategies and the results of clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of pharmacotherapy for GD. It also discusses the importance of distinguishing different pathological gambler subtypes such as impulsive, obsessive-compulsive and addictive subtypes as this may have serious pharmacological implications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland. Electronic address: labuzek@labuzek.com.
authors.forename: Krzysztof
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Łabuzek
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland.
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Beil
authors.affiliation: Provincial Specialist Hospital No. 3, Rybnik, Poland.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Beil-Gawełczyk
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland.
authors.forename: Bożena
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gabryel
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecological Endocrinology, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland.
authors.forename: Grzegorz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Franik
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland.
authors.forename: Bogusław
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Okopień
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016739:Behavior, Addictive / Q000188:drug therapy*; D015195:Drug Design; D005715:Gambling / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior / Q000187:drug effects; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy; D015995:Prevalence
keywords: Gambling disorder; Impulsivity; Pathological gambling; Pharmacotherapy