The relationship between gambling disorder and suicidality

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Author(s): Slutske, Wendy S. ; Davis, Christal N. ; Lynskey, Michael T. ; Heath, Andrew C. ; Martin, Nicolas G.

Journal: Clinical Psychological Science

Year Published: 2022

Date Added: April 11, 2022

People who engage in disordered gambling are at higher risk of suicide. The nature of the relationship between disordered gambling and suicide is not clear. One way to study the effect of genetics and environment versus the causal effect of the behaviour on suicidality is to examine twin pairs. Twins where one twin had gambling disorder symptoms and the other did not were queried about suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts. The researchers found that the relationship between disordered gambling and suicidal thoughts and plans in women was mainly due to genetics and environment. But, disordered gambling appeared to have a causal effect on suicide attempts in men. The causal effect might be explained by the financial hardship due to gambling.

Citation: Slutkse, W. S., Davis, C. N., Lynskey, M. T., Heath, A. C., & Martin, N. G. (2022). An epidemiologic, longitudinal, and discordant-twin study of association between gambling disorder and suicidal behaviors. Clinical Psychological Science. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/21677026211062599

Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/21677026211062599

Keywords: epidemiology ; gambling disorder ; genetics ; longitudinal studies ; suicidality ; suicide ; twin studies

Topics: Biological Factors ; Comorbidities ; Gambling Environment ; Suicide

Conceptual Framework Factors: Psychological - Comorbid Disorders ; Psychological Factors ; Biological - Genetic Inheritance

Study Design: Observational: Cohort

Geographic Coverage: Australia

Study Population: People in the Australian Twin Registry Cohorts II and III, totalling 2995 twin pairs and 1844 people who are twins but whose twin was not in the dataset

Study Funding:

This study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. It was also supported by an award from the International Center for Responsible Gambling.