From 1980 to mid-1990 fifty-one gamblers were evaluated and treated at the psychiatric university hospital of Homburg/Saar in Germany. All were men with a mean age of 33.7 years. Gambling had lasted 5.2 years on average. Most patients were motivated to undergo therapy by members of their family. The majority of them had been in psychotherapeutic treatment before. Thirty-six of the 51 patients had committed punishable acts including fraud and embezzlement and, in 7 cases, robbery. The sample could be divided into three clinical subgroups. The first group consisted of patients with severe psychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia, manic-depressive illness or organic brain disorder. Patients of the second group suffered from serious personality disorders. Those of the third group showed deep-rooted problems in their current relationships.
We carried out a study with 150 patients suffering from endogenous psychosis in order to confirm earlier findings of an association between HLA and various psychiatric syndromes. Our sample consisted of 107 schizophrenics, 25 patients with recurrent endogenous major depressive disorder, and 18 schizoaffectives. A significant excess of HLA B27 was found among schizophrenics with a family history of endogenous psychosis. This association is consistent with reported earlier studies. The preliminary data on the schizoaffective sample suggest a positive association with HLA B7. The data on patients with endogenous major depressive disorder failed to identify an association with HLA.
We carried out a study on 63 patients suffering from alcoholism in order to determine the frequency of 27 HLA antigens. In comparison to healthy blood donors no significant deviation of HLA distributions in alcoholics was found. The data on alcoholic patients with physical consequences such as cerebral seizures, liver cirrhosis and polyneuropathy failed to identify an association with HLA.
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