Gambling Disorder Symptoms, Suicidal Ideation, and Suicide Attempts

OBJECTIVE: Gambling disorder (GD) patients have a higher suicide risk compared to the general population. The present study investigates the suicide-related risk factors of GD patients by analyzing GD diagnosis-related symptoms and suicide-related behaviors of subjects. METHODS: This study investigated which symptoms among GD diagnosis criteria are related to suicide risk in 142 patients diagnosed with GD. To analyze the relationship between GD symptoms and suicidal ideation and suicide attempt, the odds ratio (OR) was determined through multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: The number of symptoms was significantly higher in the subjects who had suicidal ideation group and attempt group. In the cases of past suicide attempts, responses to withdrawal and escape questions were significantly higher; in the cases of ongoing suicidal ideation, responses to negative consequences and bailout questions were significantly higher. When depression was corrected, the ‘bailout’ item was, indicating that ‘bailout’ increased suicidal ideation (OR=4.937, 95% CI=1.009–24.164). In the suicide attempt group, ‘relieve’ item may increase suicide attempt (OR=6.978, 95% CI=1.300–35.562). CONCLUSION: Past suicide attempts in GD patients correlated with withdrawal symptoms, and financial problem correlated with suicidal ideation. This suggests that evaluating suicide risk is important when evaluating GD patients, and evaluation of financial problems is important for GD patients with suicide risks.