Patterns of autonomic arousal in imaginal situations of winning and losing in problem gambling.

AIMS: To examine changes in skin conductance level (SCL), for problem gamblers in response to personally relevant imaginal tasks, representing winning or losing. SETTING, DESIGN, PARTICIPANTS AND MEASUREMENTS: SCL and subjective arousal were compared for problem poker machine gamblers (n = 13) and a control group (n = 20). Participants were asked to describe a situation in which they had (a) won and (b) lost during a period of gambling. Before and during the task, recordings of SCL were taken.

FINDINGS: There were significant differences between responses of problem and social gamblers. A significant interaction indicated that social gamblers became more aroused in reaction to winning than losing, whereas problem gamblers became equally aroused in response to both tasks.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that it may be responses to losing, rather than winning that are paramount to the development and maintenance of problem gambling.