To test the hypothesis that pathological gamblers seek stimulation as a means of reducing aversive under-aroused states of boredom and/or depression, the Beck Depression Inventory, Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale and a Boredom Proneness Scale were administered to 48 diagnosed pathological gamblers and a control group of 40 family physician patients. Analyses of variance showed pathological gamblers obtained significantly higher boredom proneness and depression scores than those of controls. That the Boredom Proneness Scale failed to correlate with the Zuckerman Boredom Susceptibility subscale suggested the two measure differing dimensions. Results indicated the possible existence of three subtypes of pathological gamblers, one group characterized by boredom, another by depression, and a third by a mixture of both depression and boredom.

Results show elevated traits of impulsivity among clinic samples of pathological gamblers compared to normative data and show that impulsivity is related to the severity of gambling behaviour as measured by the South Oaks Gambling Questionnaire. A principal component analysis of the Eysenck Impulsivity Scale and the personality Disorder Questionnaire-Revised, demonstrated that the concept of the "antisocial-impulivist" identified to Blaszczynski, Steel & McConaghy (1997) is not only characterized by impulsivity and antisocial personality disorder but also by high loadings from other cluster B and cluster C personality disorders. CONCLUSION. This research supports the role of the construct of impulsivity in mediating the severity of gambling behaviour and associated behavioural and psychological disturbance among pathological gamblers presenting for treatment. Impulsivity is best understood as part of a general personality disorder structure characterized primarily by DSM-III-R Axis II cluster B and some cluster C personality disorder.

BackgroundAppearance comparison has consistently been shown to engender body image dissatisfaction. To date, most studies have demonstrated this relationship between appearance comparison and body image dissatisfaction in the context of conventional media images depicting the thin-ideal. Social comparison theory posits that people are more likely to compare themselves to similar others. Since social media forums such as Facebook involve one’s peers, the current study aimed to determine whether the relationship between appearance comparison and body image dissatisfaction would be stronger for those exposed to social media images, compared to conventional media images.MethodsA sample of 193 female first year university students were randomly allocated to view a series of either Facebook or conventional media thin-ideal images. Participants completed questionnaires assessing pre- and post- image exposure measures of thin-ideal internalisation, appearance comparison, self-esteem, Facebook use and eating disorder risk.ResultsType of exposure was not found to moderate the relationship between appearance comparison and changes in body image dissatisfaction. When analysed according to exposure type, appearance comparison only significantly predicted body image dissatisfaction change for those exposed to Facebook, but not conventional media. Facebook use was found to predict higher baseline body image dissatisfaction and was associated with higher eating disorder risk.ConclusionsThe findings suggest the importance of extending the body image dissatisfaction literature by taking into account emerging social media formats. It is recommended that interventions for body image dissatisfaction and eating disorders consider appearance comparison processes elicited by thin-ideal content on social media forums, such as Facebook, in addition to conventional media.

Previous studies using the Parental Bonding Instrument have shown a general trend for neurotic subjects to score their parents as less caring and more protective. Such a finding was broadly replicated in a study of 80 clinically anxious subjects and age- and sex-matched controls. Although direct comparisons of PBI scores failed to reveal clear-cut differences between generalised anxiety (GA) and panic disorder (PD) subgroups, logistic regression analyses revealed higher odds ratios for parental assignment to aberrant categories in the GA group, with PD patients reporting a more limited pattern of overprotective parenting only. Our findings suggest that adverse parental behaviour may be relevant to the pathogenesis of GA, while parental 'affectionate constraint' may be a parental response to early manifestations of PD.

Twenty compulsive gamblers were randomly allocated, half to receive aversion-relief therapy and half to receive imaginal desensitization; both groups were followed-up for one year. Compared with those who received aversion-relief, gamblers who received imaginal desensitization reported a significantly greater reduction of gambling urge and behaviour; they also showed a significant reduction in trait anxiety at one year and in state anxiety at one month and one year following treatment. A high level of state anxiety at one month following treatment predicted failure to respond to treatment at one year in the subjects who received imaginal desensitization, but not in those who received aversion-relief. The relationship between reduction in anxiety and in gambling urge in response to imaginal desensitization was predicted from the theory that compulsive gambling is driven by aversive tension.

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Motor impulsivity, which is an impairment in withholding and cancelling inappropriate responses, may account for the inability for pathological gamblers (PGs) to inhibit their urges to gamble. The aim of this systematic review was to perform a quantitative and qualitative synthesis of existing studies in order to assess whether PGs without comorbid substance use disorder have elevated motor impulsivity, relative to healthy controls. An exhaustive literature search led to the identification of 20 studies which met inclusion criteria. A meta-analysis was then conducted on the following measures: stop signal reaction time from the stop signal task; commission errors, omission errors, and Go reaction time from the Go/No-Go task; and the motor impulsiveness subscale of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-Motor). The results revealed a moderate to large mean effect size of stop signal reaction time, small to moderate mean effect sizes for commission errors, omission errors and Go reaction time, and a large mean effect size for the BIS-Motor. Significant heterogeneity in effect sizes was observed on most behavioural measures, but not for the BIS-Motor or omission errors on the Go/No-Go task. Overall, these results suggest that motor impulsivity may be one of the features of PG psychopathology, accounting for their poor inhibitory control over gambling behaviours. Moreover, other deficits in sustained attention, or more generally in executive/cognitive control, may be present in PGs. We discuss the implications, limitations of existing research, and suggested avenues for future studies, particularly the need to acknowledge heterogeneity amongst PGs and amongst different behavioural measures.

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