Teenagers who gamble are more likely than other people their age to say they also drink alcohol and take drugs, new research reports.

Young gamblers also reported higher rates of addiction to alcohol or drugs, and appeared to be at higher risk of depression. Moreover, adults who started gambling before age 18 were also more likely to report using drugs and drinking alcohol, and be addicted to both, than adults who did not gamble.

These findings suggest that unhealthy habits may be contagious, Dr. Wendy J. Lynch told Reuters Health, and starting to gamble early in life puts people at particular risk of having problems immediately or later in life.

Just why getting an early start on gambling appears to up the risk of other problems is unclear, she said. People who gamble at young ages may simply have a “vulnerable personality” to other unhealthy behaviors, or the “thrill-seeking” nature of gambling may sensitize them to other, thrill-seeking activities like drugs and alcohol.

“I don’t know that one thing causes the other,” the researcher, based at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, said.

Regardless, gambling among teenagers may serve as a warning sign that they are at risk, Lynch said, and dealing with the gambling may help protect them from other troubles.

Despite the fact that gambling is largely illegal for teenagers, up to 90 percent of people between the ages of 12 and 17 say they have gambled within the last year, according to the Archives of General Psychiatry report.

Previous research has suggested that young gamblers may be more vulnerable than other gamblers to problems that go along with gambling. To investigate whether this is the case, Lynch and her colleagues surveyed 1,076 teens and adults about their gambling habits and psychological health.

The researchers considered people alcohol users if they drank alcohol at least once or twice per month in the last year, and drug users if they took drugs at least five times in the last year. People were classified as depressed if they said they had ever spent two weeks feeling sad, empty, or lost interest in the things they used to enjoy.

All types of gamblers, regardless of their age and when they started gambling, were more likely than non-gamblers to drink alcohol.

However, teenage gamblers and adults who started gambling early were more likely than non-gamblers to say they were addicted to either drugs or alcohol in the last year.

Moreover, teen gamblers and adults who began gambling before the age of 18 appeared to have more of a problem with drugs and alcohol than adults who started gambling later in life.

Young gamblers tended to gamble for different reasons than older gamblers. Specifically, they were more likely to say they gambled for social reasons, and less likely to do it to win money, and lose or win large amounts while playing.

SOURCE: Archives of General Psychiatry, November 2004.