[Factors predisposing to pathological gambling]

An examination of 150 patients suffering from pathological gambling (PG) has shown that a PG predisposition includes 3 components: personal, morphofunctional and gender. The personal component is a combination of lability and hyperthymia, higher extraversion, easy communication, riskiness, low empathic ability, inclination to emotional satiation. The morphofunctional component embraces structural (a pathology of cortical and subcortical areas, localized mainly in the frontal region and limbic structure of brain) and functional (abnormalities of regulatory processes, signs of cerebral immaturity) peculiarities of the central nervous system. The gender component is reflected in the notable predominance of males, weak and medium-weak sexual constitution, psychosexual development peculiarities manifested as a reduced romantic stage. This complex predisposition, though non-fatal, raises the risk of the disorder.