A D2 antagonist enhances the rewarding and priming effects of a gambling episode in pathological gamblers.

A D2 antagonist enhances the rewarding and priming effects of a gambling episode in pathological gamblers.

Zack M; Poulos CX

Neuropsychopharmacology

2007

Female; Humans; Male; Pain Measurement; Adult; Middle Aged; Semantics; Analysis of Variance; Motivation; Double-Blind Method; IM; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Neuropsychological Tests; Blood Pressure/de [Drug Effects]; Dopamine Antagonists/ad [Administration & Dosage]; Dopamine Antagonists/ae [Adverse Effects]; Gambling/px [Psychology]; Haloperidol/ad [Administration & Dosage]; Haloperidol/ae [Adverse Effects]; Reaction Time/de [Drug Effects]; Reward

Previous research indicated shared neurochemical substrates for gambling and psychostimulant reward. This suggests that dopamine substrates may directly govern the reinforcement process in pathological gambling. To investigate this issue, the present study assessed the effects of the relatively selective dopamine D2 antagonist, haloperidol (3 mg, oral) on responses to actual gambling (15 min on a slot machine) in 20 non-comorbid pathological gamblers and 18 non-gambler controls in a placebo-controlled, double-blind, counterbalanced design. In gamblers, haloperidol significantly increased self-reported rewarding effects of gambling, post-game priming of desire to gamble, facilitation of reading speed to Gambling words, and gambling-induced elevation in blood pressure. In controls, haloperidol augmented gambling-induced elevation in blood pressure, but had no effect on other indices. The findings provide direct experimental evidence that the D2 substrate modulates gambling reinforcement in pathological gamblers.

2007

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