RT Journal
A1 Slutske WS, Zhu G, Meier MH, Martin NG
T1 GEnetic and environmental influences on disordered gambling in men and women
JF Archives of General Psychiatry
JO Archives of General Psychiatry
YR 2010
FD June 1
VO 67
IS 6
SP 624
OP 630
DO 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2010.51
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2010.51
AB Context 
    Women now represent nearly half of all individuals in treatment for pathological gambling (PG), but relatively little is known about the causes of PG among women or potential sex differences in the causes of PG.Objectives 
    To (1) investigate the role of genetic and environmental risk factors in the development of disordered gambling (DG) among women and (2) determine the extent to which the genetic and environmental risk of DG among women differs quantitatively or qualitatively from the risk of DG among men. (Disordered gambling refers to the full continuum of gambling-related problems that includes PG disorder.)Design 
    Twin study.Setting 
    The national community-based Australian Twin Registry.Participants 
    Four thousand seven hundred sixty-four individuals from 2889 twin pairs; twins were aged 32 to 43 years and 57% were women.Main Outcome Measure 
    Disordered gambling was defined based on lifetime DSM-IV PG symptom counts.Results 
    The estimate of the proportion of variation in liability for DG due to genetic influences was 49.2% (95% confidence interval, 26.7-60.9). There was no evidence for shared environmental influences contributing to variation in DG liability. There was no evidence for quantitative or qualitative sex differences in the causes of variation in DG liability.Conclusions 
    This study establishes for the first time that genes are as important in the etiology of DG in women as they are in men and that the susceptibility genes contributing to variation in liability for DG are likely to overlap considerably in men and women.