Addiction and the Diagnostic Criteria for Pathological Gambling
Addiction and the Diagnostic Criteria for Pathological Gambling
This chapter, which presents a discussion on addiction and the diagnostic criteria for pathological gambling (PG), specifically describes the problem of the DSM-IV criteria for PG. It shows that meeting the DSM-IV criteria for PG is neither necessary nor sufficient for being a pathological gambler. The chapter demonstrates that the problem with the DSM-IV criteria appears to have arisen due to ignorance on the part of the psychiatric and psychological communities regarding some relevant specifics of gambling. It suggests that although significant gambling losses strongly link with a subject’s being a bad decision maker with respect to gambling, that is no excuse for making gambling losses criterial of PG.
Keywords: addiction, pathological gambling, DSM-IV, diagnostic criteria, pathological gambler, bad decision maker
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