The dimensional assessment of personality in pathologic and social gamblers: the role of novelty seeking and self-transcendence.

Objective: A few personality traits are characteristic of pathologic gamblers (PGs), but it is not clear if and how their personality profile differs from that of non-pathologic gamblers (non-PGs).

Methods: Sixty-five non-clinical subjects, differentiated into non-PGs and PGs with the means of the South Oak Gambling Screen (SOGS) and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition-Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) criteria, were administered with the Temperament and Character Inventory; their values were compared with those of control subjects (CS).

Results: Novelty seeking (NS) and self-transcendence (ST) values were higher whereas self-directedness and cooperativeness values were lower in PGs with respect to both non-PGs and CS.