Examining the Relationship Between At-Risk Gambling and Suicidality in a National Representative Sample of Young Adults

Abstract

Although many clinical studies document a relationship between gambling and suicidality, evidence of this association in general population surveys has been mixed. Probing this association in a nationally representative sample of young adults with data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, we made same gender comparisons of depression and suicidality between 298 at-risk gamblers and 13,000 others. Although gamblers of both genders showed higher depression, only females reported significantly higher suicide thoughts and attempts. Males with gambling problems were no more likely than nongamblers to have suicide thoughts or to make prior suicide attempts on three separate measurement occasions.