Just can’t get enough A German researcher who found that heart rate and cortisol concentrations surge when habitual gamblers place money bets but not when playing for points claims this proves gambling is “addictive” in the physiological sense. New Scientist highlights the controversy over this claim given many scientists’ refusal to accept that a behavior can be physiologically addictive, that “you can’t have an addiction unless you take a substance.”

If the findings of the scientific paper (in the journal Biological Psychiatry) are well-described here, the assertion that it “proves gambling is addictive” is absurd. All that appears to be shown is that, when people do something pleasurable, they demonstrate some of the physiological changes associated with pleasure or gratification. In essence, the research proves that such a behavior is “addictive” only in the way we use that term in lay conversation, to mean merely something we enjoy doing alot. The more precise notion of addictiveness involves (a) physiological tolerance (as the person continues to use the substance, it takes higher and higher doses to have the same effect); (b) physiological dependency (when denied the substance at the expected interval, a physiological withdrawal reaction ensues); and (c) the drug-seeking activity is preoccupying and dominates the person’s behavior pattern.

Assertions such as the following, from the article, are risible: “…Such findings might reduce the

culpability of people who have committed crimes. If lawyers

can attribute their clients’ crimes to physiological cravings

rather than acts of free will, they may receive lighter

sentences. ” Even though all craving of pleasurable activity has a physiological basis, by no stretch of the imagination does it diminish someone’s free will by any notion of autonomy and choice I’m aware of in the behavioral sciences! New Scientist

Now you tell me — is this a related item or not? Contract bridge enhances the immune system, according to a preliminary study

by researchers at UC Berkeley. EurekAlert!