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Attachment styles and severity of pathological gambling: Preliminary evaluations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2020

R. Testa ,
P. Grandinetti ,
M. Pascucci ,
A. Bruschi ,
P. Parente ,
G. Pozzi  and
L. Janiri
R. Testa
Affiliation:
Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, Rome, Italy
P. Grandinetti
Affiliation:
AUSL, Modena, Department of Mental Health, Modena, Italy
M. Pascucci
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, University of Foggia, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Foggia, Italy
A. Bruschi
Affiliation:
Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, Rome, Italy
P. Parente
Affiliation:
Section of Hygiene, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Department of Public Health, Rome, Italy
G. Pozzi
Affiliation:
Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, Rome, Italy
L. Janiri
Affiliation:
Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Neurosciences, Rome, Italy

Abstract

Introduction

The addictive behaviors can be seen as attachment disorders. To our knowledge, the literature on the relationship between pathological gambling (PG) and attachment styles is still poorly represented. However, in addicted patients, the identification of secure or insecure attachment styles seems to have serious implications for the therapeutic alliance and the treatment.

Objectives

To examine the clinical role of attachment styles in the PG patients.

Aims

To study the relationships between the different attachment styles and PG and the severity of PG.

Materials

We recruited 33 patients with GP according to DSM-IV-TR criteria; all patients were abstinent from addictive behaviors at least since one month, the experiences in close relationships (ECR) was administered to investigate attachment styles, the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) to investigate the severity of gambling.

Results

The subjects showed the following attachment styles (Table 1). Ambivalent attachment style correlates with high scores to the SOGS (P < 0.001), and with a shorter period of abstinence from PG (P = 0.022). Patients with ambivalent attachment style have increased severity of PG at SOGS, correlating with higher raw score on the anxiety factor of ECR and lower raw score on avoidance factor (for both P = 0.036).

Conclusions

Patients showed ambivalent attachment, and anxiety factor correlates with a greater severity of PG. Attachment style could be a severity index of PG. Our findings need to be replicated in larger groups, also widening the target of other addictions both chemical and behavioral.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Type
e-Poster Walk: Substance related and addictive disorders – Part 2
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 41 , Issue S1: Abstract of the 25th European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2017 , pp. S396
Copyright
Copyright © European Psychiatric Association 2017

Table 1
Figure 0

Table 1

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