JUST CAN'T GET ENOUGH

Your Body Can Become Hooked On Blackjack, Sex ... Even Gardening

ENGLAND footballers take note: gambling is as addictive as smoking,
drinking and taking narcotic drugs.

This controversial claim by German researchers is based on a study of
hormone levels in men playing blackjack. The findings are important because
many addiction researchers refuse to accept that behaviours can be
physiologically addictive.

"Some people say you can't have addiction unless you take a substance, but
I would argue that gambling taken to excess is an addiction," says
psychologist Mark Griffiths, who studies behavioural addiction at
Nottingham Trent University. "If you accept that, you then accept that sex,
computer games, even gardening, can be addictive-it opens up the floodgates
to everything else."

Gerhard Meyer and his colleagues at the University of Bremen recruited 10
gamblers from a casino and asked them to play blackjack, staking their own
money. While the gamblers played, Meyer measured changes in their heart
rates and levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their saliva. He then
asked them to play for points rather than money, as a "control" situation.

Both heart rates and cortisol concentrations; were markedly higher when the
gamblers played for money (see Graph). "It's the first time someone has
measured cortisol in gambling," says Meyer.

He concedes he has not found definitive proof that gambling is addictive.
After all, he has yet to show that raised cortisol boosts levels of key
chemicals like dopamine. But he says it's a further step towards this.
Gamblers themselves report feeling surges of euphoria when they place their
bets, he points out. "Every time they bet, there's a thrill." This echoes
the euphoria experienced by drug takers, which results from a surge of the
neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin in the brain.

"It's the reward system of the body," explains Meyer. "The theory behind
addiction is that if you consume an [addictive] substance, more dopamine is
released than normal, and this is what happens when people consume drugs or
alcohol. When people gamble, they say they feel this euphoria through a
behavioural surrogate. Cortisol may contribute to such mood alterations."

Meyer even speculates that such findings might reduce the culpability of
people who have committed crimes. If lawyers can attribute their clients'
crimes to physiological cravings rather than acts of free will, they may
receive lighter sentences.

Next, Meyer plans to measure blood-borne stress hormones such as
adrenaline. The ultimate proof would come from measurements of
neurotransmitters in the brain. But this is practically impossible in
casinos, he says.

Andy Coghlan

More at: Biological Psychiatry (vol 48, p 948)