Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Delay and probability discounting in pathological gamblers with and without a history of substance use problems

  • Original Investigation
  • Published:
Psychopharmacology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Rationale

Pathological gambling and substance use disorders are highly comorbid, possibly because they both stem from a similar process—impulsivity. Although much data exist regarding the association between delay discounting and these psychiatric disorders, relatively little research has examined probability discounting and its relationship with either substance use or gambling.

Objectives

The goal of the current study was to compare rates of probability and delay discounting in a large population of pathological gamblers with and without a history of substance use problems.

Methods

Treatment-seeking pathological gamblers with (n = 117) and without (n = 119) a history of substance use problems completed questionnaires about discounting of hypothetical monetary outcomes and the Eysenck Impulsivity Questionnaire. The delay-discounting questionnaire involved choices between a smaller amount of money delivered immediately versus a larger amount delivered later, and the probability questionnaire was comprised of choices between a smaller certain versus a larger probabilistic monetary outcome. Hyperbolic functions estimated delay and probability discounting rates based on the indifference points obtained through the questionnaires.

Results

Results revealed significant effects of substance use problem status on delay but not on probability discounting, with no significant correlation noted between the two discounting processes. Only delay discounting correlated with Eysenck impulsivity scores.

Conclusions

These data suggest that delay and probability discounting tap different dimensions, and delay discounting is more closely linked with substance use problem histories in pathological gamblers.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ainslie G (1992) Picoeconomics: the strategic interaction of successive motivational states within the person. Cambridge Unversity Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Alessi SM, Petry NM (2003) Pathological gambling severity is associated with impulsivity in a delay discounting procedure. Behav Processes 64:345–354

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-IV, 4th edn. American Psychiatric Association, Washington, D.C

    Google Scholar 

  • Bickel WK, Marsch LA (2001) Toward a behavioral economic understanding of drug dependence: delay discounting processes. Addiction 96:73–86

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bickel WK, Odum AL, Madden GJ (1999) Impulsivity and cigarette smoking: delay discounting in current, never, and ex-smokers. Psychopharmacology 146:447–454

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bickel WK, Yi R, Landes RD, Hill PF, Baxter C (2011) Remember the future: working memory training decreases delay discounting among stimulant addicts. Biol Psychiatry 69:260–265

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bjork JM, Hommer DW, Grant SJ, Danube C (2004) Impulsivity in abstinent alcohol-dependent patients: relation to control subjects and type 1-/type 2-like traits. Alcohol 34:133–150

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Coffey SF, Gudleski GD, Saladin ME, Brady KT (2003) Impulsivity and rapid discounting of delayed hypothetical rewards in cocaine dependent individuals. Exp Clin Psychopharmacol 11:18–25

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Compton WM, Thomas YF, Stinson FS, Grant BF (2007) Prevalence, correlates, disability, and comorbidity of DSM-IV drug abuse and dependence in the United States: Results from the national epidemiologic survey on alcohol and related conditions. Arch Gen Psychiatr 64:566–576

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • de Wit H, Flory JD, Acheson A, McCloskey M, Manuck SB (2007) IQ and nonplanning impulsivity are independently associated with delay discounting in middle-aged adults. Pers Indiv Differ 42:111–121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dixon MR, Marley J, Jacobs EA (2003) Delay discounting by pathological gamblers. J Appl Behav Anal 36:449–458

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Engwall D, Hunter R, Steinberg M (2004) Gambling and other risk behavior on university campuses. J Am Coll Health 52:245–255

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Evenden JL (1999) Varieties of impulsivity. Psychopharmacology 146:348–361

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Eysenck SBG, Eysenck HJ (1978) Impulsiveness and venturesomeness: their position in a dimensional system of personality description. Psychol Rep 43:1247–1255

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Eysenck SBG, Pearson PR, Easting G, Allsopp JF (1985) Age norms for impulsiveness, venturesomeness and empathy in adults. Person Individ Diff 6:613–619

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fals-Stewart W, O'Farrell TJ, Freitas TT, McFarlin SK, Rutigliano P (2000) The timeline followback reports of psychoactive substance use by drug-abusing patients: psychometric properties. J Consult Clin Psych 68:134–144

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gerbing DW, Ahadi SA, Patton JH (1987) Toward a conceptualization of impulsivity: components across the behavioral and self-report domains. Multivariate Behav Res 22:357–379

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green L, Myerson J (2004) A discounting framework for choice with delayed and probabilistic rewards. Psychol Bull 130:769–792

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Green L, Myerson J (2010) Experimental and correlational analyses of delay and probability discounting. In: Madden GJ, Bickel WK (eds) Impulsivity: the behavioral and neurological science of discounting. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp 67–92

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hasin DS, Stinson FS, Ogburn E, Grant BF (2007) Prevalence, correlates, disability, and comorbidity of DSM-IV alcohol abuse and dependence in the United States: results from the national epidemiologic survey on alcohol and related conditions. Arch Gen Psychiatr 64:830–842

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman WF, Moore M, Templin R, McFarland B, Hitzemann RJ, Mitchell SH (2006) Neuropsychological function of delay discounting in methamphetamine-dependent individuals. Psychopharmacology 188:162–170

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Holt DD, Green M, Myerson J (2003) Is discounting impulsive? Evidence from temporal and probability discounting in gambling and non-gambling college students. Behav Processes 64:355–367

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jaroni JL, Wright SM, Lerman C, Epstein LH (2004) Relationship between education and delay discounting in smokers. Addict Behav 29:1171–1175

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kessler RC, McGonagle KA, Zhao S, Nelson CB, Hughes M, Eshleman S, Wittchen H, Kendler KS (1994) Lifetime and 12-month prevalence of DSM-III—R psychiatric disorders in the United States: results from the National Comorbidity Study. Arch Gen Psychiatr 51:8–19

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kirby KN, Marakovic NN (1996) Delay-discounting probabilistic rewards: rates decrease as amounts increase. Psychonom Bull Rev 3:100–104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirby KN, Petry NM, Bickel WK (1999) Heroin addicts have higher discount rates for delayed rewards than non-drug-using controls. J Exp Psychol Gen 128:78–87

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Krueger TC, Schedlowski M, Meyer G (2005) Cortisol and heart rate measures during casino gambling in relation to impulsivity. Neuropsychobiology 52(4):206–211

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • LaBrie RA, Shaffer HJ, LaPlante DA, Wechsler H (2003) Correlates of college student gambling in the United States. J Am Coll Health 52:53–62

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ledgerwood DM, Alessi SM, Phoenix N, Petry NM (2009) Behavioral assessment of impulsivity in pathological gamblers with and without substance use disorder histories versus healthy controls. Drug Alcohol Depend 105:89–96

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Leonhard C, Mulvey K, Gastfriend D, Shwartz M (2000) The addiction severity index: a field study of internal consistency and validity. J Subst Abuse Treat 18:129–135

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lesieur HB, Blume SB (1987) The South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS): a new instrument for the identification of pathological gamblers. Am J Psychiatry 144:1184–1188

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lesieur HR, Blume SB (1991) Evaluation of patients treated for pathological gambling in a combined alcohol, substance abuse and pathological gambling treatment unit using the Addiction Severity Index. Brit J Addict 86:1017–1028

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lesieur HR, Blume SB (1992) Modifying the Addiction Severity Index for use with pathological gamblers. Am J Addict 1:240–247

    Google Scholar 

  • Lesieur HR, Cross J, Frank M, Welch M, White CM, Rubenstein G, Moseley K, Mark M (1991) Gambling and pathological gambling among university students. Addict Behav 16:517–527

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Logue AW (1988) Research on self-control: an integrating framework. Behav Brain Sci 11:665–679

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luengo MA, Carrillo-de-la-Peña M, Otero JM (1991) The components of impulsiveness: a comparison of the I.7 Impulsiveness Questionnaire and the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale. Pers Individ Diff 12:657–667

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madden GJ, Petry NM, Johnson PS (2009) Pathological gamblers discount probabilistic rewards less steeply than matched controls. Exp Clin Psychopharmacol 17:283–290

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mazur JE (1984) Tests of an equivalence rule for fixed and variable reinforcer delays. J Exp Psycho Anim B 19:426–436

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McLellan AT, Luborsky L, Cacciola J, Griffith JE, Evans F, Barr HL, O'Brien CP (1985) New data from the Addiction Severity Index. Reliability and validity in three centers. J Nerv Ment Dis 173:412–423

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2010) Results from the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Volume I. Summary of National Findings (NSDUH Series H-38A, HHS Publication No. SMA 10–4586). Rockville, MD.

  • Mitchell SH (1999) Measures of impulsivity in cigarette smokers and non-smokers. Psychopharmacology 146:455–464

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Myerson J, Green L, Hanson JS, Holt DD, Estle SJ (2003) Discounting delayed and probabilistic rewards: processes and trait. J Econ Psychol 24:619–635

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ohmura Y, Takahashi T, Kitamura N (2005) Discounting delayed and probabilistic monetary gains and losses by smokers of cigarettes. Psychopharmacology 182:508–515

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Oleski J, Mota N, Cox BJ, Sareen J (2010) Perceived need for care, help seeking, and perceived barriers to care for alcohol use disorders in a national sample. Psychiatr Serv 61:1223–1231

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Petry NM (2000) A comprehensive guide to the application of contingency management procedures in general clinic settings. Drug Alcohol Depend 58:9–25

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Petry NM (2001a) Pathological gamblers, with and without substance abuse disorders, discount delayed rewards at high rates. J Abnorm Psychol 110:482–487

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Petry NM (2001b) Delay discounting of money and alcohol in actively using alcoholics, currently abstinent alcoholics, and controls. Psychopharmacology 154:243–250

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Petry NM (2003) Validity of a gambling scale for the Addiction Severity Index. J Nerv Ment Dis 191:399–407

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Petry NM (2007) Gambling and substance use disorders: current status and future directions. Am J Addict 16:1–9

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Petry NM, Casarella T (1999) Excessive discounting of delayed rewards in substance abusers with gambling problems. Drug Alcohol Depend 56:25–32

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Petry NM, Stinson FS, Grant BF (2005) Comorbidity of DSM-IV pathological gambling and other psychiatric disorders: results from the national epidemiologic survey on alcohol and related conditions. J Clin Psychiatr 66:564–574

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petry NM, Ammerman Y, Bohl J, Doersch A, Heather G, Kadden R, Molina C, Steinberg K (2006) Cognitive-behavioral therapy for pathological gamblers. J Consult Clin Psychol 74:555–567

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rachlin H, Raineri A, Cross D (1991) Subjective probability and delay. J Exp Anal Behav 55:233–244

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds B (2006) A review of delay-discounting research with humans: relations to drug use and gambling. Behav Pharmacol 17:651–667

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds B, Richards JB, Horn K, Karraker K (2004) Delay discounting and probability discounting as related to cigarette smoking status in adults. Behav Processes 65:35–42

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Richards JB, Zhang L, Mitchell SH, de Wit H (1999) Delay or probability discounting in a model of impulsive behavior: effect of alcohol. J Exp Anal Behav 71:121–143

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shead NW, Callan MJ, Hodgins DC (2008) Probability discounting among gamblers: differences across problem gambling severity and affect-regulation expectancies. Pers Individ Diff 45:536–541

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sobell LC, Sobell MB (1992) Timeline follow-back: a technique for assessing self-reported alcohol consumption. In: Litten RZ, Allen JP (eds) Measuring alcohol consumption. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ, pp 41–71

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Stinchfield R (2002) Reliability, validity, and classification accuracy of the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS). Addict Behav 27:1–19

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Toce-Gerstein M, Gerstein DR, Volberg RA (2003) A hierarchy of gambling disorders in the community. Addiction 98:1661–1672

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vuchinich RE, Simpson CA (1998) Hyperbolic temporal discounting in social drinkers and problem drinkers. Exp Clin Psychopharmacol 6:292–305

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Weinstock J, Whelan JP, Meyers AW (2004) Behavioral assessment of gambling: an application of the timeline followback method. Psychol Assess 16:72–80

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yi R, Chase WD, Bickel WK (2007) Probability discounting among cigarette smokers and nonsmokers: molecular analysis discerns group differences. Behav Pharmacol 18:633–663

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yi R, Mitchell SH, Bickel WK (2010) Delay discounting and substance abuse-dependence. In: Madden GJ, Bickel WK (eds) Impulsivity: the behavioral and neurological science of discounting. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, pp 191–211

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Zack MM, Poulos CX (2009) Effects of the atypical stimulant modafinil on a brief gambling episode in pathological gamblers with high vs. low impulsivity. J Psychopharmacol 23:660–671

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research and preparation of this report were supported in part by grants: R01-MH60417, R01-DA021567, P30-DA023918, T32-AA07290, R01-DA027615, R01-DA022739, RO1-DA13444, R01-DA018883, R01-DA016855, R01-DA14618, P50-DA09241, P60-AA03510, and R01-DA024667.

Conflict of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Calhoun Cardiology Center, MC-3944, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, 263 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, CT, 06030-3944, USA

    Leonardo F. Andrade & Nancy M. Petry

Authors
  1. Leonardo F. Andrade
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nancy M. Petry
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nancy M. Petry.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Andrade, L.F., Petry, N.M. Delay and probability discounting in pathological gamblers with and without a history of substance use problems. Psychopharmacology 219, 491–499 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-011-2508-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-011-2508-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation