A neurobiological approach to gambling

Gambling is an increasingly widespread practice worldwide. Currently gambling disorder is recognized as a behavioral addiction in the DSM-5 due to its many similarities with substance addiction. As a result a number of neurobiological hypotheses have been tested in recent years. To this end we carried out a literature review in the PubMed database using the following keywords: Neurobiology Gambling disorder Gambling and Pathological gambling.27 articles were included 15 of which addressed gambling from a neuroimaging perspective 7 concerned neurochemistry and 5 dealt with the therapeutic implications of neurobiological mechanisms. Through these studies the mechanisms involved are a dysfunction of reward system brain circuits particularly in the striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These studies also highlighted the central role of dopamine and dopamine receptors as well as noradrenergic serotonergic glutamatergic and opioid systems in the genesis of this disorder.