The role of alexithymia, boredom, desire thinking, and subjective risk intelligence in individuals with gambling disorder: a cross-sectional study.

This article investigates the associations between alexithymia, boredom, desire thinking, and subjective risk intelligence in individuals diagnosed with gambling disorder (GD) compared to healthy controls. The study found that participants with GD exhibited higher levels of alexithymia—particularly difficulty identifying feelings and externally oriented thinking—along with increased boredom and desire thinking scores. Although GD subjects showed lower subjective risk intelligence scores than controls, this difference was not statistically significant. Significant correlations among these psychological constructs were observed only in the GD group, suggesting interconnected cognitive and affective processes in gambling pathology. The findings highlight the potential role of higher-order cognitive processes, such as desire thinking, and the understudied relationship between subjective risk intelligence and alexithymia in GD, warranting further research.