Dr Bill Pring, Chariman AMA Public Health Committee, with Mandy Taylor, ABC Central Australia
Discussion - Health effects of problem gambling
TAYLOR: Excessive gambling is, of course, unhealthy for your wallet and can cause problems with finances and family. But did you know it can actually make you sick? Doctors have discovered there are actual physical side effects associated with problem gambling as well as some more commonly known emotional conditions. And the Australian Medical Association says there's evidence to suggest health problems connected with gambling are on the increase. Doctor Bill Pring from AMA joins me. Good afternoon.
PRING: Hello Mandy.
TAYLOR: Well Doctor Pring, what health problems are associated with excessive gambling?
PRING: First of all it's Doctor Pring. P-R-I-N-G. But that's alright. Look, the sort of things that come more directly out of the effects of gambling are depression and anxiety. People could understand that because of, you know, becoming short of cash because you've gambled too much away, having to hide it from friends and so forth. So the two major sort of psychological symptoms are depression and anxiety that come from them. Now, when you're depressed you tend to neglect your own health - your physical health too - and so people can often get into strife through not looking after themselves properly when they're depressed.
And then, with anxiety, you get a lot of physical symptoms associated with anxiety and that can then led to various physical conditions starting up because of those anxiety symptoms.
TAYLOR: So what sort of physical conditions do you see manifesting in people who gamble too much?
PRING: Yes well, physically they really are - I do have to emphasise - they come out of, usually anxiety symptoms and so, you often - things that have been highlighted in the media just recently are things like irritable bowel symptoms, and these can occur. This is a condition that can be triggered by anxiety or can be worsened by anxiety and so, that leads to sort of loose bowels and various problems associated with the bowel system. And as people know, some people are a bit more prone to reacting with the bowels when they become anxious. And so, it's easy for people to understand that this sort of symptom can occur.
Another common one that I've certainly highlighted is the fact that when you get anxious, people often turn to smoking and sometimes if you smoke a lot more, because you're more anxious, you obviously start developing respiratory problems.
TAYLOR: I was wondering when I heard about this whether there are conditions known as 'poker machine finger' or 'crap players wrist'.
PRING: Well there probably are in a few people that do it more often. But rather than it being some new condition associated with gambling, we all know that if you repetitively do something enough you'll get an ache or a pain and if you've got some arthritis in the joints or something, then obviously repeatedly pushing the buttons or whatever may produce some problems. But I don't think we're trying to suggest that there's a new condition around every corner related to gambling. It's just really that the things we already know that gambling does, like producing depression and anxiety, can also then lead on to worsening and in some cases starting off some physical conditions that can be produced by anxiety and depression. Perhaps people don't realise that anxiety and depression can actually make you physically ill or that depression and anxiety can have physical symptoms associated with them.
TAYLOR: So do these symptoms only manifest when gamblers are losing?
PRING: Usually they manifest when gambles are in trouble with it. Now, they may not always be losing but they may be under extreme strain trying to hide their gambling habit. Mostly though, gamblers do lose money and that then puts them into big problems because of their financial resources going down.
TAYLOR: What sort of studies have been done on these physical side effects?
PRING: I don't think a lot of studying has gone into the physical side effects, I think mainly because the emphasis has been on the depression and anxiety side of it. But it just - most doctors know that if you are depressed or anxious for long enough you will usually develop various physical manifestations of the problems as time goes on.
TAYLOR: What sort of ramifications do you think these findings have?
PRING: Well I think that what it shows is that people need to have a holistic type of assessment as they can often get from good GPs and other medicos. If they're gambling there are often a number of consequences of it besides the obvious ones of losing money and having to hide things and getting into problems in their interpersonal relationships. Also you can develop psychological symptoms and from those symptoms you can actually develop various physical problems as well.
TAYLOR: Thanks very much for your time.
Ends