Acute effects of alcohol intoxication on decision making and impulsivity in at-risk gamblers with or without problematic drinking

Abstract

The study analyzed decision making under ambiguity and risk, impulsivity, and acute effects of alcohol intoxication on these processes in subjects exhibiting either one, both, or none of these conditions: problem drinking and at-risk gambling involvement. Subjects (N = 110, ages 18-57; 57.3% men) were evaluated on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994), the Game of Dice Task (GDT; Brand et al., 2005) and the Go-Stop Impulsivity Paradigm (GoStop; Dougherty, Mathias, & Marsh, 2003) before and after the ingestion of an alcohol (inducing≈0.45 g/kg) or a placebo drink. At-risk gamblers (ARG+) showed better performance on the IGT than not-at-risk gamblers and nongamblers (ARG-). ARG+ and subjects intoxicated with alcohol picked more cards than their respective controls from the high frequency of punishment decks. ARG+ without problematic drinking exhibited greater impulsivity in the GoStop (i.e., exhibited a significantly lower percentage of response inhibition at the 50-ms latency) after the ingestion of alcohol. GDT scores were unaffected by gambling, problem drinking, or acute alcohol dosing. The study confirmed the facilitatory effect of acute alcohol on impulsivity. A new and important finding was the altered IGT performance in ARGs. This is particularly striking when considering that these are not pathological gamblers. Apparently, even this low level of gambling severity is sufficient to alter decision making. The lower level of sensitivity to frequency of punishment apparently improved performance in this population, but it can present risk for the development of more severe gambling behaviors, particularly when considering that the acute alcohol treatment increased their impulsivity and had an independent effect upon sensitivity to punishment.